tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295754632018-12-18T13:14:48.838-05:00Main Street Liberal<b>The Voice of Liberalism from Main Street, not Hollywood Boulevard</b>Mainstreet Liberalnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4187125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-20877134388438834012018-12-18T13:14:00.001-05:002018-12-18T13:14:48.749-05:00Trump: A Wall For Thee, Illegal Workers For Me<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">Unsurprisingly, as something neither Trump supporters (the entire GOP) nor Democrats wanted to talk about, it was only a one-day story.&nbsp; Still, it was notable that on Sunday's <i>Face The Nation</i>, White House senior adviser Stephen Miller (not<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5N7qNid79s"> this&nbsp;</a>Steve Miller) vigorously defended Donald Trump's dream of a border wall with Mexico.<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">After Miller stated "we're going to do whatever is necessary to build the border wall, to stop this ongoing crisis of illegal immigration" and asked a follow-up question, he <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/12/16/stephen_miller_trump_absolutely_willing_to_shut_down_government_over_border_wall.html">responded</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>This is a very fundamental issue. At stake is the question of whether or not the United States remains a sovereign country, whether or not we can establish and enforce rules for entrance into our country.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>The Democrat Party has a simple choice. They can either choose to fight for America's working class or to promote illegal immigration. You can't do both. </b><o:p></o:p><br /><b><br /></b><b><br /></b></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aLnHYFTad8I" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />While Miller is trying to convince the country that fighting for America's working class requires a wall, he might want to persuade the president he works for. Twelve days ago we<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/06/us/trump-bedminster-golf-undocumented-workers.html"> learned</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>During more than five years as a housekeeper at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., Victorina Morales has made Donald J. Trump’s bed, cleaned his toilet and dusted his crystal golf trophies. When he visited as president, she was directed to wear a pin in the shape of the American flag adorned with a Secret Service logo.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Because of the “outstanding” support she has provided during Mr. Trump’s visits, Ms. Morales in July was given a certificate from the White House Communications Agency inscribed with her name.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Quite an achievement for an undocumented immigrant housekeeper.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Ms. Morales’s journey from cultivating corn in rural Guatemala to fluffing pillows at an exclusive golf resort took her from the southwest border, where she said she crossed illegally in 1999, to the horse country of New Jersey, where she was hired at the Trump property in 2013 with documents she said were phony.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>She said she was not the only worker at the club who was in the country illegally....<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>“There are many people without papers,” said Ms. Diaz, who said she witnessed several people being hired whom she knew to be undocumented.</i><o:p></o:p><br /><i><br /></i><i><br /></i></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/agZYz7DfPF0" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />Whatever Donald Trump's level of knowledge about the illegal immigrants working at his club- and there is no hard evidence that Trump, a notorious micro-manager, was aware- there is no reason to believe he would have objected. In July, Miami Herald columnist Fabiola Santiago <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fabiola-santiago/article214584425.html">wrote</a><o:p></o:p><br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><b>... it’s not surprising that his posh Palm Beach estate and private resort club, Mar-a-Lago, is asking the Labor Department to grant Trump 61 foreign worker visas — six more than requested last year.</b><o:p></o:p></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Amid the scandals that constantly surround Trump, the request might seem insignificant news. But, coming from immigrant-bashing "America First" Trump, it takes the cake in the hypocrisy department.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Under the H-2B visa program for seasonal, non-agricultural workers, employers must prove that they can’t find Americans to fill the jobs. Are there not enough cooks, servers and housekeepers in South Florida to staff Trump’s "Winter White House?"<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Hard to believe, but then again, the Trump organization makes the minimal effort required to prove to the government that it can’t find U.S.-based employees.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>As anyone who has tried can attest, all you have to do is ask for recommendations on Facebook — and a flood of candidates turn up.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Tourism being our No. 1 industry, Florida is hospitality haven, with a slew of programs at universities and colleges churning out skilled graduates. In addition, the state is home to a healthy, hard-working and young immigrant population eager to make a decent living cooking, waitressing and housekeeping — even if it’s seasonal, lower skilled employment.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Add to this the displaced and unemployed people from Puerto Rico post Hurricane Maria, and how can the Labor Department justify Trump’s foreign hires?</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The Labor Department doesn't have to justify Trump's foreign hires.&nbsp; Democrats, fearful of even a remote possibility of appearing anti-immigrant, would not strenuously complain. And neither will Republicans, who are in the pocket of Donald J. Trump. There is no downside except for the American worker, never a high priority for Stephen Miller's boss.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-57603089987054412502018-12-17T12:02:00.000-05:002018-12-17T12:02:24.386-05:00Yearning<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">What do the 18th and 45th presidents of the United States of America have in common?&nbsp;Donald J. Trump has not been arrested or indicted- yet. However, President Ulysses S. Grant was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2018/12/16/police-officer-who-arrested-president/?noredirect=on&amp;utm_term=.e1ac85930fd5">arrested</a> by a police officer named William H. West, who prior to joining the Washington, D.C. police force had fought in the Civil War and prior to that, had been a slave.<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">West stopped the incumbent president two straight evenings for speeding in on the streets of Washington, D.C. in his horse-drawn carriage. The second time he was arrested, then released after posting a $50 bond.<br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H99JOv3abuk" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br />In what seemingly, but mistakenly, appears to be a completely unrelated matter, , Steve M. <a href="http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2018/12/if-youre-not-loyal-republican-are-you.html">notes</a> that the anti-Trump fight has sometimes been framed as an expression, which is "odd"<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><i>because in America it's never considered patriotic to challenge the Republican Party. Ever since 1968, or maybe 1964, or maybe the McCarthy Era, it's been an article of faith in Heartland America that the GOP is the party of patriotism and its opponents are all dissenters and rootless cosmopolitans, if not outright traitors. Right now, the Democrats, anti-Trump Republicans, and non-political investigators seeking to bring Trump to justice really are the patriots -- but much of the country doesn't believe that, and never will. It ought to be the case that Trump's opponents are seen now as the people with the monopoly on patriotism -- but I think the exact opposite is still closer to our political reality. That's why The New York Times keeps interviewing all those old white men in Pennsylvania diners. It's why so much of the political press is concerned about the fate of The Weekly Standard and the possibility of a 2020 primary challenge to Trump. They're rooting for a revival of the American party, as they see it -- the GOP.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">As insightful as this is, there is another reason that white people (not only men) are being interviewed in diners in "heartland" (not only Pennsylvania) states. (I know, I know: SM is using old white men in Pennsylvania diners as a metaphor.)&nbsp; They are rooting for the revival of not only the myth of the GOP as the patriotic party, but also in revival of the myth of the concept of the rule of law.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">When President Nixon decided to resign his office rather than face nearly inevitable impeachment and probable removal by the Senate from the presidency, there were sighs of relief across the Establishment. Nixon had "spared" the country the agony of impeachment proceedings and the rule of law had been upheld in a nation of laws, not of men.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />In reality, of course, the failure to charge Nixon with <a href="http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/history/johnson/rnimparticles.htm">obstruction of justice</a> (or any other offense) during or after his presidency demonstrated that the President is above the law and that this is a nation of men, and not of laws. Similarly, the dominant (though by no means unanimous) view currently is that a sitting President cannot be indicted. Surely, he can be indicted after leaving office- if not first pardoned by the president who succeeds him.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />In the last of a<a href="https://twitter.com/YAppelbaum/status/1074362381046898688"> series of tweets</a> which included a link to the 1908 Washington Post article aboutGrant's arrest, Yoni Applebaum remarks</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">7. Think about that. An enslaved man enlisted; fought in the Battle of the Crater; joined the police; and arrested a sitting president—who defended him for doing his job, and paid his speeding fine. That’s what it means that we live in a country subject to the rule of law.</div>— Yoni Appelbaum (@YAppelbaum) <a href="https://twitter.com/YAppelbaum/status/1074365609096429569?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 16, 2018</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> <br />There was no arrest warrant issued for Grant, as there typically would be for a black man- or a white man,or any woman- who decides to blow off his court appearance. He did not appear in court and merely forfeited his bond.<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Grant's transgression was merely speeding- not obstruction of justice, conspiracy, or any one of a number of financial crimes that Donald J. Trump may have committed before he was elected. However, the slap on the wrist for Ulysses S. Grant surely was not a triumph of the rule of law, and neither will it be if the law does not go where the facts are on the sitting President.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Those god-fearing, down-to-earth Trump voters* are interviewed in part, as Steve M argues, because many members of the Establishment (Doris Kearns Goodwin included, below) are pining for return of the American party. They also hope to announce the triumph of the rule of law, if Donald Trump resigns his office or is even merely defeated in 2020, even if crimes uncovered go unpunished.<br /><br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nAu5n69wzKc" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-20843480053773023342018-12-15T16:32:00.000-05:002018-12-15T16:32:11.950-05:00Outplayed<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">That warm, fuzzy feeling has taken over the government of Atlanta, Georgia.<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The leftist Rewire.News <a href="https://rewire.news/article/2018/12/14/atlanta-ended-ice-contract-nearby-georgia-started/">reports</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>After a years-long grassroots campaign documenting ICE’s human rights violations in the jail, Atlanta finally ended the contract in September, realizing that it could not call itself a “welcoming city” while profiting from immigrants’ pain. As we showed in our report “Inside Atlanta’s Immigrant Cages,” scores of immigrants detained at the Atlanta City Detention Center experienced or observed human rights violations, including solitary confinement for arbitrary reasons; grossly inadequate medical and mental health care; an uncompensated labor program; intimidation and threats by the guards; extremely poor-quality food; and sexual assault.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br /></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>“Atlanta will no longer be complicit in a policy that intentionally inflicts misery on a vulnerable population without giving any thought to the horrific fallout,” Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said before signing the executive order ending the city’s dealings with ICE. “As the birthplace of the civil rights movement, we are called to be better than this.”</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Two months earlier in an <a href="https://www.atlantaga.gov/Home/ShowDocument?id=38135">Executive Order</a>&nbsp;signed by Bottoms, the city <a href="https://www.atlantaga.gov/Home/Components/News/News/11687/1338">formally ended its agreement </a>with the US Marshals Service to accept detainees from ICE, three months after its new police had been announced.<br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FDLX9ZyGRBc" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />The city of Atlanta could have considered demanding an end to solitary confinement for arbitrary reasons and to unpaid labor; improvement of medical care; improving the quality of food; additional training and/or personnel to counter intimidation and threats by the guards.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But no, Atlanta is a "welcoming city.&nbsp; The federal government did not respond by finding more humane facilities in which to house illegal immigrants nor to detain fewer.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Uh-uh. Instead, ICE<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>turned elsewhere to continue feeding the detention machine. In August, the agency started detaining immigrants at the Robert A. Deyton Detention Facility in Lovejoy; we learned about this in October, not through an announcement by ICE, but by happenstance. The facility is owned by Clayton County, roughly 25 minutes away from the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The private prison corporation GEO Group leases the facility from Clayton and runs it through a contract with the U.S. Department of Justice.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br /></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>The GEO Group’s detention centers have a well-documented track record of human rights violations, including lack of medical and mental health care; arbitrary solitary confinement; denial of basic hygiene products; and moldy and inedible food. Due to these horrid conditions, death, suicide, and attempted suicide are all too common in GEO-run facilities such as the Adelanto Detention Facility in California,LaSalle Detention Facility in Louisiana, Denver Contract Detention Facility, and South Texas Detention Complex.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br /></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>The Robert A. Deyton Detention Center is no different, according to the detained immigrants we have spoken to as part of our work with the social-justice organization Project South. They tell us that the food is inedible, they are yelled at and cursed at by the officers, and they are put on lockdown for many hours straight.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br /></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>In addition, there is inadequate medical, dental, and mental health care.</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Motivated by altruistic sentiments, the city has now done its share in expanding the carceral state. GEO probably will do its part in jamming as many detainees as possible into the Deyton Detention Center.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Atlanta also has struck a blow into the idea, which took root in the Reagan Administration, that government has no role in improving the lives of its residents. Since then, a wide array of services in local, state, and national governments has been privatized, to the detriment of both consumers and taxpayers, in the mistaken notion that government is incapable of anything and must be rescued by the market.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">There may be a silver lining to the action(s) taken by Mayor Bottoms.&nbsp; Attention may be paid to the increasing number of inmates housed in private prisons under President Trump. If so, congressional Democrats may come to realize that criminal justice reform measures in the manner of the<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/12/3/18122392/first-step-act-criminal-justice-reform-bill-congress"> First Step Act</a>&nbsp;are at best very modest. If not, at least Atlanta can bask in the warm glow of feeling, however inaccurately, that it has done something for immigrants.<o:p></o:p></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-12113068137332382822018-12-14T11:21:00.000-05:002018-12-14T11:21:40.055-05:00Unverified And Unrefuted Allegation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">Maybe he's just exaggerating for the yucks.<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Not Tony Schwartz, who is deadly serious, earnest, and clearly feeling the guilt everyone who had anything to do with the rise of businessman/entrepreneur Donald J. Trump should have, but doesn't.&nbsp; In January, Schwartz <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global/commentisfree/2018/jan/18/fear-donald-trump-us-president-art-of-the-deal">wrote </a>for <i>The Guardian</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Looking back, I also hear the plaintive wail of a desperate child who believes he is alone in the world with no one to care for him. “I alone can do it” is Trump’s survival response to: “I must do it all alone.”</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br /></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>There are two Trumps. The one he presents to the world is all bluster, bullying and certainty. The other, which I have long felt haunts his inner world, is the frightened child of a relentlessly critical and bullying father and a distant and disengaged mother who couldn’t or wouldn’t protect him</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br /></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>“That’s why I’m so screwed up, because I had a father who pushed me so hard,” Trump acknowledged in 2007, in a brief and rare moment of self-awareness.</i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I doubt the significance of this psychological profile, though Trump obviously is a phony, mostly bluff and bluster. However, it is probably not the motivating factor in his behavior.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">By contrast, information which may very well be out-of-date and (far less likely) completely false is exceedingly pertinent. Perhaps he was simply exaggerating for the benefit of his stand-up routine but Neil Casler, a former staff on The Apprentice, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9afSmPEQDo">claimed </a>on December 1<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>I'll tell you one more thing I don't usually tell- I'll tell you two things since you're being so nice to me</b>.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>He's a speed freak. He crushes up his Adderall and he sniffs it because he can't read and he gets really nervous when he has to read cue cards. I'm not kidding. This is true. I had a 24-page NDA, a non-disclosure agreement. I didn't know that he was going to become the President. Now, no way, dumbass, I'm telling everything I know.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>So he gets nervous and he crushes up these pills. That's why he sniffs when you see him in debates and when you see him reading, that's why he's tweeting- you know, it's like he's out of his mind.&nbsp; <o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>It makes sense if you think about it. Methamphetamine was invented by the Nazis to keep fighter pilots awake all night on bombing runs. Right?&nbsp; It makes sense that Trump would use it to hate-tweet in his self-centered ways at four a.m. on the toilet.</b><o:p></o:p><br /><b><br /></b><b><br /></b></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T9afSmPEQDo" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />Questions for Mr. Casler abound about Trump's alleged use of the drug. At what times and during what period did Trump use? How did he react to sniffing it and how did he behave otherwise? Were other individuals aware of the habit? Did the star try to hide its use? Were non-disclosure agreements the only reason no one else has spoken out about this? Had Casler spoken to anyone else about this- or did he hear anything further about it since he worked on The Apprentice? Does Casler believe Mr. Trump still uses the drug- why or why not?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The accusation should not simply lay out in public, unconfirmed, even unexamined. Most likely, Mr. Casler either is lying- or we have a President who was once (possibly still) a drug addict. As with Donald Trump's lies to the public about his <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/12/04/donald-trump-michael-flynn-russia-national-security-blackmail-column/2196390002/">financial involvement with Russians</a>, it is conceivable that the President is being blackmailed. If this story is ignored by the mainstream media, it is a colossal case of journalistic malpractice.<o:p></o:p></div><br /><br /><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-53949736579214550002018-12-13T13:11:00.000-05:002018-12-13T13:11:09.063-05:00Betting On Stupidity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">Welcome to reality, Ann Coulter.<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Of course, the conservative author's reacquaintance with reality won't last long, but on Tuesday she did <a href="https://twitter.com/AnnCoulter/status/1072547218593329153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1072547218593329153&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Fann-coulter-slams-trump-lying-about-wall-already-being-built-does-he-think-1254477">acknowledge</a></div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Even a Washington Post reporter knows that not 1 inch of Trump's wall has been built. Does Trump think his supporters are dumber than a WaPo reporter? <a href="https://t.co/iCbior7yFp">https://t.co/iCbior7yFp</a></div>— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnnCoulter/status/1072547218593329153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2018</a></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In Trump's behalf (in this context)- or in his disgrace- he is still trying to obtain congressional approval for funding of a wall on the southern border. Thus, there are even stronger indications that, yes, Donald Trump believes his supporters just fell off a turnip truck.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In interviews with Sean Hannity on February 22 and April 4, 2006, according to <a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer/promise/1430/balance-federal-budget-fairly-quickly/">Politifact</a>, Donald Trump stated</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">It can be done. ... It will take place and it will go relatively quickly.&nbsp; ... If you have the right people, like, in the agencies and the various people that do the balancing ... you can cut the numbers by two pennies and three pennies and balance a budget quickly and have a stronger and better country.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">However, President Trump has done the reverse and</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported that the preliminary federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2018 was $782 billion. That was $116 billion more than the $666 billion shortfall in fiscal year 2017.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>And the most recent CBO projection for fiscal year 2019 shows a deficit of $981 billion. Each year from 2020 to 2028, the CBO projected, the deficit would top $1 trillion annually.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>This state of affairs was not divorced from actions taken by Trump himself, analysts say.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>The two biggest drivers of the projected increase in the 2019 deficit were the Republican tax bill and the bipartisan agreement on federal spending, both of which Trump signed.</i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Similarly, in an interview with The Washington Post on March 31, 2016, candidate Trump<a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer/promise/1418/eliminate-federal-debt-8-years/"> remarked</a> "We’ve got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt. ... Well, I would say over a period of eight years. And I’ll tell you why.”&nbsp;&nbsp;However, the accumulated public debt was projected earlier this year to <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/publication/53781">rise</a> from 76.5% of GDP in 2017 to 96.2% of GDP at the end of 2028.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">When candidate Trump said that he would reduce the debt and deficits, he calculated that voters wouldn't catch on till after he was elected, if at all.&nbsp; He has won that debt; uh, er, bet.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Similarly, Trump continues denigrating Christianity as much as possible, wondering when his supporters will catch on. "Two Corinthians" instead of "Second Corinthians;"&nbsp; referring to "my little cracker (and) little cup of wine; grossly misrepresenting the significance of communion; putting money into the communion plate; confessing he never feels a need to confess.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And now this: asked as Thanksgiving approached what he's most thankful for, the President might have said for "God's grace" or "the love of God for us all," or "living in the greatest country ever."<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">"God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble," <a href="https://inspiration.org/christian-articles/being-humble-why-its-important-to-god/">James wrote</a>.&nbsp;<i>Therefore</i> (and not <i>however</i>), after unremarkably replying "for having a great family," he added "and having made a tremendous difference in this country." <o:p></o:p><br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zFYzjveedN4" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />The oft-offensive and consistently far-right Ann Coulter will not change her ideological outlook nor her perverted perception of Washington Post reporters. However, she now realizes that they've been had. She recognizes that Donald J. Trump believes that his supporters are really, really dumb. And he's out to prove it.<o:p></o:p></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-33608877058347819392018-12-12T11:00:00.000-05:002018-12-12T11:00:14.305-05:00"I Am Woman, Hear Me Whimper"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">The chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, is a proud woman and proud feminist. Or at least she wants us to think so, because Tuesday we read in <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/11/gop-deep-data-dive-2018-losses-1057605">Politico</a><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Speaking during POLITICO's Women Rule Summit, McDaniel said the party needs to look into why many white suburban female voters — a traditionally solidly Republican group — switched to Democratic candidates during the midterms.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>"Of course, we have to look at why we’re losing with women," McDaniel said. "I’m a woman. I want to know that, too. I don’t think we’re a monolithic group. I don’t like that"....</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Describing her own experience leading up to serving as the second female chair in the history of the Republican National Committee, McDaniel said she often felt excluded from discussions with donors because of her gender. She said when she was chair of the Michigan GOP, she was called a kindergartner and laughed out of talks with potential donors. But "you don’t give up, and I got money from that person," she said....</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>McDaniel herself felt similar hesitancy when tapped by Reince Priebus to run for party chairwoman, but she ran and became one of the most successful fundraisers in the party's history.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>“I’m the classic 60 percent qualified apply for the job," she said. "I did what the men did.”</i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Well, not exactly.&nbsp; She did as men would <i>not</i> do. Fourteen months after Ronna accep;ted the job as party chairman, The New York Times' Jeremy Peters<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/us/politics/ronna-romney-mcdaniel.html"> reported</a> in January that she<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>tried to leave little doubt about where her loyalty lies. She even stopped using her full name — Ronna Romney McDaniel — professionally after the president joked with her and her husband about dropping her given surname.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>“You know the job you’re signing up for,” she said in an interview one recent morning at a diner near her home, referring obliquely to the fact that committee leaders typically have to toe the president’s line when their party holds the White House.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>And she has indeed been highly deferential. She fell in line after Mr. Trump insisted last month that the Republican National Committee put resources back into the Senate race in Alabama to aid Roy S. Moore, who had been accused of preying on girls as young as 14.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Alabama rejected Mr. Moore and elected a Democrat to the Senate for the first time in a generation. But even now, Ms. McDaniel will not say whether she believes the committee’s move was a mistake. “I understand why the president did what he did,” she said. “He wants to keep that majority.”<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Of course she would not say whether throwing a lot of money into electing a Republican in Alabama, where Republicans almost never lose, was a mistake. We should have expected no less, or perhaps no more, from a woman who changed her identity because Big Daddy Trump asked.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Upon getting married, a woman obviously faces a challenge a man doesn't. She can change her maiden name to her husband's surname, retain her birth name, or opt for a combination, using both last names, with or without a hyphen.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">After marrying Mitt Romney's older brother, Ronna faced that challenge. She decided, out of familial pride or ambition, to retain the Romney name while assuming the name "McDaniel," thereby assuring the family that once prided itself on "family values" that, yes, she must be a traditional woman because got married.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But then the libertine Donald J. Trump,<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-trump-access-hollywood-tape-is-playing-on-repeat-for-12-hours-on-the-mall/2017/10/06/c19a4d52-aaa2-11e7-92d1-58c702d2d975_story.html?utm_term=.52869df2554a"> conqueror </a>of Playboy models, pornographic actresses, fashion models, and all manner of women in the fast lane, took over that Party. And Ronna Romney McDaniel became "Ronna McDaniel" because Donald Trump wanted to stick it to Mitt Romney, and doing it to his niece seemed a fine way. "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y6TYcUMkS0">Well, first of all, I look atDonald Trump as a champion of women</a>" sealed the deal. Take that, Mitt.<br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6Y6TYcUMkS0" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">As with any woman, Ronna Romney McDaniel can identify in any manner she wishes and if it is as "Ronna McDaniel," best wishes.&nbsp; However, if she had a little backbone, she would own it. "I did what the men did" is <a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=That%27s%20rich">a little rich</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-33628792036854757782018-12-11T12:43:00.000-05:002018-12-11T12:43:34.639-05:00Little Sound And Fury, Probably Signifying Less<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">In an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-are-former-senators-the-senate-has-long-stood-in-defense-of-democracy--and-must-again/2018/12/10/3adfbdea-fca1-11e8-ad40-cdfd0e0dd65a_story.html?noredirect=on&amp;utm_term=.7dfcd74e97ec">op-ed </a>Monday in The Washington Post, forty-four former United States senators, most Democratic but many Republican (and Independents Joe Lieberman and Lowell Weicker), wrote<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>.... it is our shared view that we are entering a dangerous period, and we feel an obligation to speak up about serious challenges to the rule of law, the Constitution, our governing institutions and our national security.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br /></i></div><div class="MsoNormal">Appearing on Cuomo Prime Time with former Democratic governor Jennifer Granholm, Rick Santorum commented (beginning at 17:33 of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TInxcvYRdkQ">video</a> below)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br /></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>What does this letter really say? I mean, it looks like a letter that was put together or the idea was for the Senate to go after Trump. But it looks like a letter that was put together by committee. They couldn't really come up with anything other than stand for God and country but it says nothing so I don't know what this is really all about. Is it a missive to say this is sort of a wink and a nod vote for impeachment when I think there isn't any realistic possibility that will occur in the next two years? I have no idea what the letter is all about.</b><br /><b><br /></b><b><br /></b></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TInxcvYRdkQ" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />That makes two of us. Impeachment, as Santorum undoubtedly knows and understands, takes place in the House. Therefore, even though there<i>is</i> a realistic possibility of impeachment because the House will be controlled by Democrats, the letter has nothing to do with impeachment. It may, instead, be an effort by these Republicans and Democrats, most of whom had a reputation for ideological moderation and/or bipartisanship, to put themselves on the right side of history.&nbsp;&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Additionally, the letter's authors may be big-timing the House, suggesting that Senators are superior to Representatives. "At other critical moments in our history," they write, "when constitutional crises have threatened our foundations, it has been the Senate that has stood in defense of our democracy."<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In a mere ten sentences, the writers have stood for nothing except, as Santorum noted, God and country, or perhaps puppies and motherhood. Alternatively, they have done something worse, sending mixed signals.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The music is "sort of a wink and nod vote for impeachment," weak tea, especially because the Senate has nothing directly to do with that act, which approximates an indictment. However, the lyrics go in the opposite direction.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">"We are on the eve of the conclusion of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation," the Senators write, a dubious claim arguably intended to push for a conclusion of the investigation. This is similar to the periodic leaks, probably coming from the Trump-Giuliani, camp, that Mueller is about to wrap up his investigation.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">If not from a committee, it might as well have come from one. This letter adds nothing to nothing, playing no role in emboldening GOP senators (or Representatives), who have been, and will remain for awhile, no bolder than an inanimate object. The following morning on the same network, Jeffrey Toobin <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tEjq_T2ZdQ">remarked</a><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>I think the Republican Party as s a group, and certainly it’s true for members of the Senate, have said, made a collective decision, that "we’re not gonna change our minds about anything until all of these developments are wrapped up, until there is a Mueller report and then we have to decide whether to throw Donald Trump over the side."</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>I think that is very unlikely. The Republican Party, as John Boehner said not long ago, is the Trump party today and they are going down with the ship, if the ship is going down.&nbsp;&nbsp;I think, if you look at Donald Trump’s popularity within the Republican Party, within the voters, it’s still very high. And the Republican politicians are following along.</i><o:p></o:p><br /><i><br /></i><i><br /></i></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1tEjq_T2ZdQ" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-45391312562048230702018-12-10T13:46:00.000-05:002018-12-10T13:46:18.074-05:00Same 'Ol Joe<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">Hopefully, he has two left feet <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/09/joe-biden-2020-vermont-bernie-sanders-1054071">because</a><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Joe Biden on Sunday waltzed into the backyard of potential future opponent Sen. Bernie Sanders sounding an awful lot like a 2020 candidate.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br /></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Six days after&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/04/biden-most-qualified-2020-candidate-1042194" target="_blank">saying</a>&nbsp;he's “the most qualified person in the country to be president,” Biden took the stage here and railed against “naked nationalism,” “phony populism” and a GOP that is “not your father’s Republican Party.”<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br /></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>“If you have a problem, what’s the problem? The other. The other. That immigrant, that black guy, that woman,” he said of populism, without mentioning President Donald Trump by name. “That’s the problem, instead of facing up to the problem called greed.”</i><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br /></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Without mentioning Donald Trump by name.&nbsp; That is, has been, and probably always been Joe Biden's problem.&nbsp; In September, Amanda Terkel<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/joe-biden-anita-hill-replay_us_5ba5089be4b0375f8f9c678f"> reminded</a> us that Anita&nbsp;<b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>Hill’s allegations became public just days before the Senate was set to vote on Thomas’ confirmation. Biden initially wanted to delay the vote by two weeks, but a GOP senator who was a Thomas supporter convinced him that fairness demanded the proceedings move faster.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Biden scheduled Hill’s testimony for Oct. 11, and agreed that the Judiciary Committee would not take another vote before sending Thomas to the full Senate on Oct. 15 ― a one-week delay. He also said he would keep questions about Thomas’ general sexual conduct ― such as his interest in pornography ― out of the hearings.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>“Joe bent over too far to accommodate the Republicans, who were going to get Thomas on the court come hell or high water,” Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) told Mayer and Abramson.</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Biden also handed a major victory to Republicans in agreeing to let Thomas testify both before and after Hill ― most crucially, scheduling his response to her allegations for 9 p.m. on a Friday, when millions of people were tuned in for their prime-time broadcast.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>In the end, Biden voted against Thomas. But when he did so, he said on the Senate floor, “For this senator, there is no question with respect to the nominee’s character.”</b><o:p></o:p><br /><b><br /></b><b><br /></b></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FB3raHknADg" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />Even now, Biden can <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-woman-just-asked-joe-biden-if-he-wouldve-handled-anita-hill-differently_us_5a09f7b1e4b0bc648a0d18f6">muster</a> only a "The message I’ve delivered before is I am so sorry if she believes that. I am so sorry that she had to go through what she went through.&nbsp;Think of the courage that it took for her to come forward.” "Twas a shame," he says, but don't look at me."<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The problem, amnesiac Joe Biden claims, is that this is "not your father's Republican Party."<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">It is your father's Republican Party. But accepting the former vice-president's short-sightedness, there still is a contradiction in his approach.&nbsp; Donald Trump, not the GOP, is the outrage in Biden's view. Yet, he still won't mention the fellow's name.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">That is Joe Biden's failure now. It was his failure roughly thirty years later. The Republican Party means well, he believes. And evidence indicates that when it doesn't, he believes Democrats can lead with a compromise and be willing to compromise off the compromise.&nbsp; Even half a loaf isn't necessary; two slices are all which are needed for a sandwich.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The Democratic Party's "go along to get along approach," nearly perfected in the 2001-2008 era, needs to end. The obstacle facing Joe Biden, assuming he runs for the Democratic presidential nomination, should not be race or gender. It shouldn't even be his age- but rather, for all those years he has been a public official, he has learned very little.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-65766023592176657592018-12-08T15:24:00.001-05:002018-12-08T15:24:57.140-05:00Knows What He Has<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">Today's "Donald Trump is smarter than a 5th grader" installment is the Attorney General Edition.<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Rob Reiner, right about almost everything, including Donald Trump and Donald Trump and the Special Counsel investigation. However, he probably is wrong when he <a href="https://twitter.com/robreiner/status/1071189621130706944">remarks</a></div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Donald Trump is not only a criminal, he’s a delusional criminal. Only a sick fuck could read a legal filing that states he’s committed a federal crime and say he’s been totally cleared. Oh I forgot, the sick delusional criminal fuck can’t read.</div>— Rob Reiner (@robreiner) <a href="https://twitter.com/robreiner/status/1071189621130706944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 7, 2018</a></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">There <i>is</i> something wrong with Donald J. Trump, but more likely of a<a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/05/donald-trump-brain-health"> physical</a> than of a psychological/mental nature. Moreover, suggesting he is delusional (or stupid)&nbsp; is counter-productive, presenting a bar to recognizing and appreciating the truly vile nature of the man and his presidency.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Was that "bar" or "barr"? Most likely, a delusional president would not have decided to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/07/us/politics/william-barr-attorney-general.html">nominate</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>William P. Barr, a skeptic of the Russia investigation who served as attorney general in the first Bush administration a quarter century ago, to return as head of the Justice Department.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Mr. Barr, 68, would become the nation’s top law enforcement official as Mr. Trump and his associates are under investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, for whether they conspired with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election and help elect Mr. Trump. Mr. Barr would oversee the inquiry as key aspects of it are coming to a close.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Known for his expansive vision of executive power, Mr. Barr has criticized Mr. Mueller for hiring too many prosecutors who donated to Democrats and has cast doubt on whether Trump campaign associates conspired with Russians. Mr. Barr has also defended Mr. Trump’s calls for a new criminal investigation into his defeated 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, including over a uranium mining deal the Obama administration approved when she was secretary of state.</i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Barr possesses a measure of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2QkKhZt9Cc">establishment credibility</a> among Republican senators, and possibly a little among Democratic senators, because he served as Attorney General for a couple of years for the recently (<a href="https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a25414794/george-hw-bush-racial-demagogue-campaign-governing/">absurdly</a>) canonized President George HW Bush. Further<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>In that role, Mr. Barr advanced a strong view of executive power. He told Mr. Bush, for example, that he could deploy troops to Panama, Iraq and Somalia without congressional approval. He also urged top lawyers at departments across the executive branch to be vigilant about congressional encroachments on executive power.</i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">When Barr <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/12/7/18128926/william-barr-trump-nomination-attorney-general-jeff-sessions">headed the Justice Department</a>, his</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>primary focus was on domestic law enforcement, particularly street crime — this was, after all, during the peak of the crime wave of the late 20th century. But he was also extremely concerned about the influx of unauthorized immigrants into the US — largely Mexican immigrants looking for work — that ultimately grew the unauthorized population to 2 million to 4 million by the time Barr and Bush left office in 1993....<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Barr rolled out a multimillion-dollar plan to beef up security in the San Diego/Tijuana area where crossings were then concentrated. One component of that plan: building a steel fence with the assistance of the Department of Defense</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">So Barr checks all the boxes because he is obsessed with candidate Trump's opponent,&nbsp; legitimate (especially in contrast to Matt Whittaker), hostile toward immigration, enthusiastic about the concentration of Executive power, and critical of the Special Counsel's investigation.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Although the last item is the most important to Trump, the next-too-last is critical. Whatever the President's physical or mental health, he may be dangerous. That is if&nbsp; "may be" is spelled "is incomparably."<o:p></o:p><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fl0tuYNVEHs" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-83576433883479184712018-12-07T12:18:00.000-05:002018-12-07T12:18:53.277-05:00Backlash Likely<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">On Thursday, Steve M. contemplated the<a href="http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2018/12/elizabeth-warren-was-in-no-win-situation.html#disqus_thread"> political strategy</a> in which Elizabeth Warren took a&nbsp;DNA test when President Trump ridiculed the Massachusetts senator for claiming that she had a Cherokee ancestor. One commenter sympathetic to Warren remarked "only White Males with an R are 'pure enough' to be beyond attack."<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Evidently, that is accurate because it has now come to Kevin Hart. And coincidentally, Elizabeth Warren is among the numerous individuals eligible to pay the price. Esquire<a href="https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a25435202/kevin-hart-oscars-controversy-explained/"> reports</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Just days after being announced as the host of the upcoming 91st Academy Awards, Kevin Hart has stepped down from his position.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>The move was prompted by fury that erupted following the announcement over anti-gay tweets the star had posted years ago—some of them preserved in infamy forever via screen shots, some still living on his account—as well as homophobic jokes that were included in earlier stand-up sets. (Hart has maintained that the bit was a satire of his own heterosexuality, and stopped performing it a decade ago.) He has defended the jokes for years.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>When backlash began, Hart posted a video to his Instagram account saying he had evolved—and that he wasn't sorry. “Guys, I’m almost 40 years old,” he said. “If you don’t believe that people change, grow, evolve as they get older, I don’t know what to tell you. If you want to hold people in a position where they always have to justify or explain the past, then do you. I’m the wrong guy, man. I’m in a great place. A great mature place where all I do is spread positivity.”<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>He would not apologize, he added in a subsequent video, despite the producers asking him to do so, because he had already addressed those remarks "several times." He would not, he said, feed the internet trolls.</i><o:p></o:p><br /><i><br /></i><i><br /></i></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J1KSLMn63xY" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />Exactly right. It's unlikely that all Hart does is spread "positivity." He is, after all, a comedian and most contemporary comedians excel at sarcasm, snark, and negativity, much of it deserved. The Academy must have realized that when it appointed him.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Hart does, however, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/kevin-hart-on-creating-tidal-for-comedy-and-why-he-refuses-to-joke-about-trump">try to avoid controversy</a> and there has been no indication that such "homophobia" is a part of his current act nor that he has made similar remarks recently. These posts were posted in 2010 and 2011- at least seven years ago. However, as Esquire continues</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Hours later, the 39-year-old actor-comedian's tone had changed drastically. "I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past," he wrote on Twitter, announcing that he is stepping down as host of the Oscars.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>He issued a second apology via a follow-up tweet: "I'm sorry that I hurt people.. I am evolving and want to continue to do so. My goal is to bring people together not tear us apart. Much love &amp; appreciation to the Academy. I hope we can meet again."</i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">If one is to apologize, whether half-heartedly or enthusiastically, the time to do it is promptly. If it comes only after a backlash- such as losing an Oscars gig- it comes off as insincere.&nbsp; Issued belatedly, the apology also appears self-serving, though if issued after retaliation (as Hart's was), it is less likely to be self-serving because the damage already has been done.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Additionally, though, there is a portion of the public which suffers from apology fatigue and/or sensitivity fatigue.&nbsp; For every individual whose respect for someone such as Hart is restored following an apology, there is one- or likely, more- viewing it as unnecessary, weak, or even pathetic.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In his third tweet after removal, Hart stated in part "Much love &amp; appreciation to the Academy.&nbsp;I hope we can meet again."<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">You have just been kicked to the curb, your rear end still smarting from landing hard on the pavement- and you express your love and hope that you "can meet again?" Fourteen years later before Donald J. Trump would ride the principle to the presidency, Bill Clinton<a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/01/strong_and_wrong_vs_weak_and_r.html"> recognize</a>d "When people are insecure,they'd rather have somebody who is strong and wrong than someone who's weak and right." <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Yet, Kevin Hart whines "I hope we can meet again."<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Worse yet, someone has again been penalized for what conservatives- and <i>most </i>Americans- believe is regrettable "political correctness."&nbsp; Hart was not penalized for something he <i>did</i>, nor for being offensive <i>last week</i>. It was for tweets of 2010 and 2011, back when President Barack Obama, a liberal icon, still <a href="http://time.com/3816952/obama-gay-lesbian-transgender-lgbt-rights/">opposed same-sex marriage</a>. (Obama said he was "evolving;" Hart also says that <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kevin-hart-homophobic-apology_us_5c09b9dfe4b0de79357b3b36">about himself</a>. One of them was given a pass.)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Worse yet, if this fetish for tolerance, viewed by most Americans as intolerance, continues apace, someone will pay. It will not be in the workplace nor in the public square, where good manners prevail. It will be, as it was in November of 2016, at the ballot box. Justifiably or otherwise, voters will hold responsible one of the political parties, and it won't be the Republican.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span></div></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-57667903030156217602018-12-06T13:07:00.003-05:002018-12-06T13:09:02.264-05:00A Man, A Dog, And Religious Faith<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">She's right, you know. She was, and is.<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/12/sully-hw-bush-service-dog-george-hw-bush-funeral.html">Slate religion editor Ruth Graham</a> outlined the outpouring of gushy romanticism at the photograph of George HW Bush's service dog, Sully, lying in front of the casket of the 41st President. She concluded that the image</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>is not proof that Sully is a particularly “good boy” or that “we don’t deserve dogs,” as countless swooning tweets put it on Monday. On its own, it says almost nothing other than the fact that Sully was, at one point in the same room as the casket of his former boss. This is simply a photograph of a dog doing something dogs love to do: Lie down. The frenzy around it captures something humans love to do, too: Project our own emotional needs onto animals.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Her point that the romanticized gushing of Sully has been aided by his "savvy public relations team" was validated by the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=Ruth%20Graham&amp;src=typd">torrent of critical tweets</a>, strikingly few with any fact-based complaints, rained down upon Graham.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Graham is among the few who at least seem to sense the significance of Wednesday's gesture by President Trump upon recitation of attendees at the Bush funeral of the Apostles' Creed.&nbsp;A&nbsp;Washington Post reporter <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2018/12/05/all-presidents-bush-funeral-service-together-recited-this-core-prayer-except-trump/?utm_term=.4965e3621093">explains</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Video from the funeral of George H.W. Bush showed a front row of presidents at Washington National Cathedral, standing and reciting it along with the program, as the voice of Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry boomed through the speakers to the thousands of mourners. Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and their wives glanced up and down from the programs they held in front of them and spoke the prayer, along with everyone else visible in the video. The program, as is typical, calls for the Creed to be said in unison</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>President Trump stood, with his hands folded in front of him, waist-high, the program in his left hand, his lips not moving. Melania Trump also did not speak, nor did she hold a program.</b><br /><b><br /></b><b><br /></b></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8GggdLB0pxw" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />Snarky tweets noted by Huffington Post<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-apostles-creed_us_5c08d01ce4b0bf813ef4063c"> included</a>"The man wouldn’t know the Apostles Creed from Apollo Creed" and "he thought it was something about Apollo Creed and wanted nothing to do with it;" There were even "Are you telling me the so-called "Muslim" president knew all the words to the&nbsp; Apostles’ Creed, but the 'Christian Conservative' President, did not?" and "Nor did the current evangelical savior (or nude model gold digger) feel it was necessary to recite the Apostles Creed...how very Christian of them."<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But we<i> don't </i>know that President Trump doesn't know the words. The words were written on the program which the other mourners held in front of them.&nbsp; And Trump did find something necessary- not to recite the Creed but to be seen refusing to do so.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The President (and the First Lady) could have held the programs in front of them, making it difficult to determine whether they were joining the others. They could have enjoyed lip-synching the words or in another manner made it appear they were doing as were the others. The man now called "President" in large measure because he was a spectacular actor on "The Apprentice"could easily have made it appear that he was doing as most of the mourners.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">He might have done so but preferred to make a statement. Graham <a href="https://twitter.com/publicroad/status/1070387099793309701?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1070387099793309701&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fentry%2Fdonald-trump-apostles-creed_us_5c08d01ce4b0bf813ef4063c">commented</a></div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">This is a strange moment. It's not about Trump not having memorized the creed, which is printed in the program. He's opting not to participate in the service. <a href="https://t.co/SHPj9I01TD">https://t.co/SHPj9I01TD</a></div>— Ruth Graham (@publicroad) <a href="https://twitter.com/publicroad/status/1070387099793309701?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2018</a></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">He did it when he referred to "my little wine (and) my little cracker," when he tried to put an offering into a communion plate, and when he <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-on-god-i-dont-like-to-have-to-ask-for-forgiveness-2016-1">remarked</a> "I think if I do something wrong, I think, I just try and make it right. I don't bring God into that picture. I don't."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Yesterday, the President was making a point. He did not neglect to pray. He<i> chose</i> not to, instead "opting not to participate in the service."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Just as he did when he made the bizarre statement that he and Kim Jong-un "<a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/9/30/17920096/trump-kim-jong-un-west-virginia">fell in love</a>," he'll keep testing the limits, pushing the envelope&nbsp; &nbsp;Although Trump believes white, Christian evangelicals may eventually hold him to account, he maintains their support while advocating forced birth, the<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-trump-champion-religious-freedom/"> right to invoke religious faith to discriminate</a>, and arch conservatives for the Supreme Court.&nbsp; Moreover, if so many people have projected their emotional needs upon a dog assigned to help an elderly former President, perhaps Donald Trump's evangelical supporters have found their own Sully.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-38512209408962776232018-12-05T17:50:00.000-05:002018-12-05T17:50:09.895-05:00Free Pass For Trump<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">The headline on Chris Cillizza's Washington Post column on October 11, 2016 read "<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/11/donald-trumps-new-attack-ad-on-clintons-health-is-brutal-it-will-also-fail/?utm_term=.61ae4cf457c5">Donald Trump's new attack ad on Clinton's health is brutal. It will also fail</a>."&nbsp; Notwithstanding the bad prediction, Cillizza accurately noted the ad showed Mrs. Clinton<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>coughing, needing assistance up steps and then, finally, having to be pulled into her security van after nearly fainting at the service last month in New York City. “Hillary Clinton doesn't have the fortitude, strength or stamina to lead in our world," says the ad's narrator over the Clinton fainting footage. “She failed as secretary of state. Don't let her fail us again."</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The ad mirrored coverage from the mainstream media. Earlier this year, Paul Waldman <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/05/02/trumps-medical-deceptions-should-be-a-scandal/?utm_term=.7429eba7fd83">reminded</a> us</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Hillary Clinton Is Set Back by Decision to Keep Illness Secret” said the front-page headline in the New York Times the next day. On that day, the cable TV networks ran a total of 13½ hours of coverage of Clinton’s health. Fox News went into paroxysms of speculation about the varieties of brain ailments Clinton might be suffering from. Politico published a photo gallery entitled “Hydrated Hillary: 9 times Clinton quenched her thirst,” just to show her bizarre water-drinking behavior that surely must have been concealing something.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Two days after the episode, the campaign revealed that Mrs. Clinton had been diagnosed two days earlier with pneumonia, which did not impede a you.gov poll asking whether voters believed the candidate's explanation (which most did not).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Yet, there was no such survey after Donald Trump sniffed his way through the first two debates with his Democratic opponent.&nbsp; It might have been from medication, though no such claim has been made. One researcher in sociology<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2016/10/10/donald-trumps-sniffling-during-debates-an-alternative-theory/#28405b346f16"> claims</a> "sniffling can be a way for a speaker to indicate a shift from personal to professional opinions and vice versa. I have called this ‘the emotional sniff’ as personal statements are allowed to be more emotional."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The sniffling may also be indicative of cocaine use. There is little evidence of this, although it does at least pass the Law of Parsimony/Occam's Razor test compared to "emotional sniffing." We may never know because Mr. Trump's medical records have never been released, only<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-trump-doctor-medical-records-20180501-story.html"> stolen</a>, by a Trump Organization thug from Dr. Harold Bornstein's office in February 2017.<br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8eYfy862fg4" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />This issue should be a scandal, not only because it is preferable not to have a president under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance, but also we simply don't know what- if anything- is wrong with a president whose behavior would be of intense concern to a family member of anyone as mercurial and erratic as he is.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">There may be no drug problem and there may be no psychological problem. However, it should have been of more than passing interest when <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/335424-trump-rode-golf-cart-while-g7-leaders-walked-through-siciliy">in May 2017</a> we learned</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>President Trump chose to ride in a golf cart while his foreign counterparts took a walk through Taormina, Sicily, on Saturday during the Group of Seven summit.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>The Times of London reported the six other world leaders — from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — walked 700 yards to take a group photo at a piazza in a hilltop town. The U.S. leader decided to wait until he could get a golf cart. </b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Yesterday, President and Mrs. Trump were to join the GW Bush family at Blair House, at .2 miles less than a&nbsp; five minute walk from the West Wing of the White House. Instead, the President decided to take a motorcade for what is roughly a <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/trump-uses-tax-payer-dollars-take-motorcade-hundred-feet-across-street-instead-walking/">16- minute drive</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Even aside from ideology, were this a President (Mrs. or Mr.) Clinton exhibiting any behavior remotely similar to what we've become accustomed to the past 2-3 years, there would be widespread calls from Republicans- and not a few from <a href="https://twitter.com/davidaxelrod/status/775308081794199552">Democrats</a>- for resignation of the President.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Trump's refusal to release his medical records should have sent up a red flag. Given statements, tweets, and all manner of actions in his first 23 months in office, the health of the President of the United States of America must arouse far more concern than it has. In what should be a frightening thought, the prospect- actually, threat- of a Mike Pence presidency should do no less.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-8120348751710883062018-12-04T13:03:00.000-05:002018-12-04T13:07:16.772-05:00He Wants Us To Go Along To Get Along<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">We have met the enemy and he is us.<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-professor-said-both-sides-do-it-so.html">Steve M</a> reviews how GOP-controlled legislatures in <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/4/18123784/gop-legislature-wisconsin-michigan-power-grab-lame-duck">Michigan</a>and <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/scott-walker-wisconsin-republicans-democracy/">Wisconsin</a> are pushing legislation to hamstring newly elected Democrat governors and attorneys general.&nbsp; The laws then would be signed by Republican governors on their way out the door. Slamming NPR, SM notes "Steve Inskeep interviewed a poli sci professor named Thad Kousser, who assured us all that Both Sides Do It."<br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wtrCaTbU-iY" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />But Kousser is merely one, presumably objective, professor. It is more serious when a former President- a Democrat, no less- does the same and no one notices.&nbsp; Last week, putative Democrat Barack Obama stated (beginning at 24:31 of the video below) at the <a href="http://news.rice.edu/2018/11/28/obama-baker-call-for-bipartisanship-at-baker-institutes-25th-anniversary-gala/">25th Anniversary Gala of the (James A) Baker Institute</a> at Rice University</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>When Jim arrives in Washington in 1981, you still had a whole bunch of conservative democrats, many of them from the south. You had Republicans, many from the north, who were extraordinarily liberal on environmental issues or civil rights issues on a whole range of topics and you know political scientists were getting angry at the fact that American parties don't make any sense.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Actually, they weren't "angry," rather suggesting the possibility that at some distant point in time the parties should transition from "Democrat" and "Republican" to "liberal" and "conservative." Obama understands that has largely, informally, occurred in the decades since. He also pines for the time when progressive leadership (i.e., Speaker O'Neill) was forced to sell out the progressive principles of the party. Obama continues</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>There's not always any rhyme or reason for it but the advantage of that was that you had overlapping- an overlapping ideological spectrum in each party so that there were going to be some Democrats you could have a conversation with who in turn were going to put some pressure on Tip O'Neill because they said "doggone it, If I'm gonna keep my seat in Tennessee, you're going to have to give a little bit because Reagan's really popular down there, and conversely Democrats would have to deal with the fact that there were going to be some Republicans who were going to reach across the aisle because actually they have same view on certain issues.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The former President continues his history lecture by blaming the media, The New York Times equally with Fox News, alleging</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>There are a range of reasons why that changed. Some of that had to do with the shift in the media because in 1981 your news cycle was still governed by the stories that were going to be filed by AP, Washington Post, maybe New York Times and the three broadcast stations and whether it was Cronkite, Brinkley, or what have you, there was a common set of facts, a baseline around which both parties had to adapt and respond to and by the time I take office what you increasingly have is a media environment in which if you are a Fox News viewer, you have an entirely different reality than if you are a New York Times reader.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Obama blames gerrymandering and believes both sides are in on it equally, about which North Carolinians <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/09/05/644767877/north-carolina-can-use-gerrymandered-map-in-november-court-rules">beg to differ</a>. The word "<a href="https://www.wabe.org/georgia-purged-about-107000-people-from-voter-rolls-report/">Georgia</a>" never escapes his lips and he pretends to be unaware of voter suppression by Republicans there and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/poll-prri-voter-suppression/565355/">elsewhere</a>.&nbsp; Nor does he mention that results of a democratic election are being undone in Wisconsin and Michigan. Instead, we hear</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>It means the basis of each respective party had become more ideological. It means that because of gerrymandering, members of Congress now are entirely sure they'll win the seat if they get the nomination. What they get to worry about is whether I get somebody from farther to the right or farther to the left who's going to run against me in a primary.&nbsp; They then are not willing to stray from whatever the party line has become....</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>What they get to worry about is whether I get somebody from farther to the right or farther to the left who's going to run against me in a primary.</i>&nbsp; But it is not liberal and conservative activists who equally have mounted credible primary campaigns in, respectively, Democratic and Republican primaries.&nbsp; It's as if the history professor/44th President had never heard the phrase <i>Tea Party</i>.<br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jaMiewSiCqg" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />There is simply no leftist equivalent to the rightist Tea Party, which sent many conservative Republicans, including then-Minority Leader Eric Cantor, packing, and which has had a lasting impact upon GOP legislators, persuaded previously to oppose anything <i>Obama</i> and now supportive of anything <i>Trump</i>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Playing the bothsiderism game, Barack Obama disappears that history, as he downplayed the threat from the far right while he was President.&nbsp;&nbsp;In June, Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/obama-2020-presidential-hopefuls-bernie-sanders-joe-biden-elizabeth-warren-ff54e4b9-08f7-4b6e-a362-69b2153054f5.html">noted</a> that "at least nine" Democrats mulling a 2020 run had met with him because "meeting with Obama is an easy way for 2020 contenders to gain legitimacy and presidential wisdom — and, most importantly, a foothold with the man still largely considered to be the Democratic Party's figurehead."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">So it matters what Barack Obama thinks.&nbsp; And what he thinks is that the Democratic Party is becoming too ideological, Washington dysfunction is prompted by the media, and the Democratic Party is as guilty as is the Republican Party of subverting democracy.&nbsp; And that nothing could be finer than a Democratic House Speaker and a Republican President sitting down together and forging consensus because that was the great thing about the Reagan presidency.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span></div></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-43847155525182326192018-12-03T13:30:00.001-05:002018-12-03T13:30:46.262-05:00Going With The Flow, As Usual<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">On Monday evening, former President Barack Obama took the stage at the Baker Institute at Rice University with professional Republican James A Baker and historian Jon Meacham in an event geared to celebrate bipartisanship.<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Obama brought his characteristic wit, intellect, insight, charm, and great good humor (edited video <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=iVzdja0e7e8">here</a>). In his final response, he displayed the last when he stated "not only did I not get indicted, nobody in my Administration got indicted." Turning toward Baker, he added "which, by the way, was the only Administration in modern history that that can be said about." (The passive-aggressive manner made the crack about past GOP presidencies only more poignant.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Stating "whether it was Cronkite or Brinkley or what have you" (the "what have you" could have included the great Dan Rather, but... Obama), the former president remarked (at 26:39 of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaMiewSiCqg">video </a>below)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>there was a common set of facts, a baseline around which both parties had to, uh, adapt and respond to and by the time I take office what you increasingly had is a media environment in which if you are a Fox News viewer, you had an entire different reality then if you are a New York Times reader.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Oh, yes. Barack Obama suggested that the credibility of <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/research/2016/09/16/flashback-how-fox-news-promoted-trumps-birtherism/213152">Fox News</a>&nbsp;is roughly that of the New York Times.&nbsp; We should let that sink in.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">He later (at 39:21) argued</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>When it comes to gerrymandering, it is absolutely true that Democrats do the same thing that Republicans do. If they're in control, then they will try to maximize the number of seats they have and vice-versa.</b><br /><b><br /></b><b><br /></b></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jaMiewSiCqg" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Up to a point, sir.&nbsp; Before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in January 2018 found the congressional districts gerrymandered by a GOP legislature unconstitutional and <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/21/17032936/pennsylvania-congressional-districts-2018">effected a redrawn map</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>in 2012, Democratic candidates won slightly more votes in US House elections and Barack Obama won the state. But the state’s 18 House seats didn’t split 9-9 between the parties — instead, Republicans won 13 seats there, and Democrats just won five. No seats changed partisan hands in the 2014 or 2016 elections, either.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Vox<a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/29/17795920/2018-midterms-north-carolina-gerrymandering-case-supreme-court"> noted</a> earlier this year that in an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/2018/08/27/fc04e066-aa46-11e8-b1da-ff7faa680710_story.html?utm_term=.7a1f027337ab">ongoing saga</a> in which congressional districts were radically gerrymandered</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>North Carolina is evenly or nearly evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, Republicans currently hold 10 of the state’s 13 House seats. In their quest for a House majority, even one or two newly competitive seats in North Carolina would be a major boost to Democrats’ chances of taking over at least one chamber of Congress....</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>But if you look at its congressional maps, Republicans have an incredibly lopsided advantage. That’s intentional; Republican state Rep. Dave Lewis admitted as much in 2016, during the redistricting process.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>“I propose that we draw the maps to give a partisan advantage to 10 Republicans and three Democrats, because I do not believe it’s possible to draw a map with 11 Republicans and two Democrats,” Lewis said at a state House hearing.</i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The map was not redrawn before the elections, and thus the <a href="https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/north-carolina/">GOP&nbsp; held on to</a> at least nine of those seats (<a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/30/18119546/north-carolina-9th-district-election-board-bladen-county">one still undetermined</a>).&nbsp; That's how they win elections.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">It shouldn't be too difficult for a former Democratic president, consistently opposed and continuously attacked by Republicans- and especially by GOP TV- for being a Democrat to acknowledge that there are big and consequential differences between the two parties. But Barack Obama won't do that, uttering "Republican Party" or "Republicans" only to add to bothsiderism.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Unfortunately, that is none too surprising. Neither is it surprising that when evaluating his accomplishments at the end of the event, former President Obama noted how much he had helped the energy sector and big business generally.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">He did not mention the Affordable Care Act or whatever other progressive initiatives he may have implemented. That may be because of the audience to which he was speaking. It may instead have been that he was particularly proud of policies which should have satisfied Republicans, or because there was little else he was responsible for. Whatever it is, one day, liberals or progressives will have to take an objective look at the years 2009-2016. Or not.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><br /></div><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-43124245396593252082018-12-01T17:53:00.000-05:002018-12-01T17:53:26.166-05:00A Right To Be Wrong<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">The chickens are coming home to roost.<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">They probably are not, but they should be.&nbsp; On Wednesday, Mark Lamont Hill, who holds an endowed chair in Temple University's Klein College of Media and Communications, delivered a controversial speech to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People at a United Nations event commemorating the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Craig R. McCoy of the Philadelphia Inquirer/Philadelphia Daily News <a href="http://www2.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/marc-lamont-hill-temple-israel-anti-semitic-20181130.html">reports </a>that Mr. Hill</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>explored numerous ways that he said Palestinians had been mistreated, ranging from their treatment in the courts to restrictions on their ability to travel. He also said violence by Palestinians could be justified as self-defense.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">At the end, however, he also</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>endorsed "a free Palestine from the river to the sea," a catchphrase of the Palestinian cause that critics associate with its most militant wings.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Critics said Hill was in effect calling for an end to Israel. After CNN dismissed him on Thursday, Hill called the criticism "absurd" and noted that elsewhere in the speech, he supported Israel's borders, or at least those that existed before it occupied the West Bank and Gaza after the Six-Day War in 1967.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>"No part of this is a call to destroy Israel," Hill wrote on Twitter on Thursday.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>He added: "I do not support anti-Semitism, killing Jewish people, or any of the other things attributed to my speech. I have spent my life fighting these things."</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But that did not stop Hill from presenting a reasonably lengthy speech in which he neglected to support the nation of Israel as a Jewish state, yet had the time to refer to Israel inaccurately as conducting "ethnic cleansing" and to repeat the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Free-Palestine-from-the-River-to-the-Sea-222862844413274/">slogan</a> of the most extreme and murderous elements wanting to annihilate Israel because of the religion of the majority of its inhabitants.<br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/I8_3mGQTX2E" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><br />That does not validate the statement of Patrick O'Connor, the chairperson of Temple University's Board of Directors, who said "it should be made clear that no one at Temple is happy with his comments. Free speech is one thing. Hate speech is entirely different."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Hill did not explicitly ridicule or disparage Jews, though the inference is clear to anyone who listens to the entire speech objectively.&nbsp; O'Connor should not do, as the left too often has (the result of which we saw on 11/6/18), label&nbsp; as "hate speech" remarks simply because they are radical, unpopular, or cause discomfort or distress.&nbsp; Free expression in a democratic society can be unsettling and. yes, <i>offensive</i>. None of those characteristics renders an opinion illegitimate, nor should subject the speaker to punishment.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Consequently, as the legal director of the Pennsylvania ACLU is quoted as explaining, "Since Temple is a public university, the Constitution applies. Under the First Amendment, Temple cannot punish an employee for making off-the-job statements that it might disagree with. It's not complicated." CNN, of course, is under no such obligation to treat all political opinions equally and exercised its right to terminate Mr. Hill.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Marc Lamont Hill may or may not be anti-Semitic merely because his passionate advocacy of the self-determination of oppressed peoples does not extend to Jews.&nbsp; But he surely is anti-Zionist, and finds the continued existence of a Jewish state antithetical to the hopes and aspirations of Palestinians.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Hill has the right, without fear of loss of employment at a public university, to blame Israel while absolving of all responsibility the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Middle_East">fifteen (15)majority-Muslim countries</a> of the Middle East comprising<a href="http://philly.zoa.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2016/02/map-flyerrevised-110414-2.pdf"> approximately 99.9%</a>&nbsp;of the <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=countries+of+the+middle+east+by+land+area&amp;rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS798US798&amp;oq=countries+of+the+middle+east+by+land+area&amp;aqs=chrome..69i57j0l2.6831j0j8&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8">region's land area</a>. Nonetheless, Temple University is well within its legal right, and arguably has a moral obligation, to announce that Professor Hill's views are his alone and do not represent the views of the institution.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And in a parallel universe, the college would assert Hill's right to be controversial, offensive, and misguided while acknowledging that he has engaged in what is commonly misunderstood as "hate speech."The boost for both freedom of expression and tolerance of offensive speech would be almost&nbsp; as bold and necessary as it would be unexpected.</div><br /><br /><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-37139151380743328102018-11-30T11:25:00.001-05:002018-12-01T20:52:34.051-05:00Disclosure Not A Sure Thing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">Read enough tweets, and you will find a few truly hilarious, <a href="https://twitter.com/sbg1/status/1068325030516396034">such as</a><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">I know it's been hours but I'm still absorbing this news that Trump was still trying to make a business deal in Russia with Putin's help even after sealing GOP nod - and amid the Russian hacking on his behalf, Trump Tower meeting, etc. How did they think this was not coming out?</div>— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) <a href="https://twitter.com/sbg1/status/1068325030516396034?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 30, 2018</a></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><i>How did they think this was not coming out?</i>&nbsp;There are approximately 86 reasons, but here are a few:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">- Trump could have avoided <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/31/president-trump-contradicts-himself-by-claiming-he-didnt-fire-james-comey-over-the-russia-probe.html">telling Lester Holt </a>on May 11, 2017 "And, in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said: 'You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, it's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should've won,'" Two days later, DAG Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller to be Special Prosecutor.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">- Attorney General Jeff Sessions might not have recused himself from the Special Counsel's probe. Of course, it would have been clearly unethical had he not done so. However, if he hadn't, the President would have backed him and there is no statute which would have demanded Sessions' removal.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">- The President could have effected the dismissal of the Special Counsel early (or at any time) in the probe. If he had done so before the indictments started coming, there would have been relatively little blowback. At that time, there would have been little hard evidence of wrongdoing and virtually no proof of anything. Even now, the investigation is being supervised by a Trump toady, about whom CNN<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/08/politics/what-does-sessions-firing-mean-for-mueller/index.html"> explains</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>As acting attorney general, Whitaker will have say over key decisions, such as whether to subpoena the President, approve criminal charges of individuals and directions over the scope of the investigation as more information comes to light.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br /></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Whitaker will also decide if the final report prepared by Mueller should be made public as well as which portions to redact.</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Even with the latest revelations, pundits argue (though exaggerate, given that most details are yet to be revealed) that getting 67 United States senators to vote in favor of removal of Donald Trump from the presidency is almost unimaginable. He could be impeached by the House- as was President Clinton, who went on to become the most popular politician in the USA for a period of time.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">President Trump could be indicted, but most legal experts maintain that is highly unlikely given current Department of Justice guidelines.&nbsp; He would be more likely prosecuted after leaving the presidency, though that might require obtaining an objective jury and would be a long-drawn out process.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">-The President<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/26/politics/michael-cohen-donald-trump-friendship/index.html"> could have kept Cohen in the Trump orbit</a> and not abandoned him because Cohen considered himself not only Trump's employer and fixer, but also a member of his family. Only after he realized the President was ditching him did&nbsp;"Cohen began sending up flares, signaling that he was considering cooperating with federal prosecutors and that his ultimate loyalty would be not to Trump, but to his "family and country." It took awhile for Cohen to prefer "<a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/michael-cohen-friend-donny-deutsch-he-was-real-linchpin-in-trumps-criminal-enterprise/">being seen as a bad guy to maybe a guy that's trying to do the right thing</a>."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>A</i><b>bout a month before Michael Cohen released his recording of a sensitive conversation he had with Donald Trump, the President's longtime attorney and adviser was agonizing over the silent treatment he was getting from his former boss.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br /></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>"I don't understand why no one's calling me. I don't understand why no one's communicating with me," Cohen told Bo Dietl, a longtime friend and well-known private investigator who relayed the conversation to CNN.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br /></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Federal prosecutors were bearing down on him over his business dealings, some involving Trump, and Cohen was looking for a sign of reassurance from the President, a man he regarded more as family than as a boss.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br /></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>"He was very taken aback that no one was communicating with him," Dietl said. "You're so close to somebody and all of a sudden they stop talking to you, you wonder what's happened."</b><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">- Donald Trump<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/mike-pence-donald-jr-and-melania-never-thought-trump-would-become-president-769701"> did not think he would win the presidential election</a> and probably believed that if he did not, there would be little attention paid to his criminal syndicate.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And so there was much reason for Donald Trump to believe that his business and financial entanglements with Russian organized crime and the Kremlin (redundancy acknowledged) would not be discovered and that if they were, he could wiggle out of the controversy as he has every other. He remains President with a substantial base and a coterie of GOP senators worried that if Trump is indeed videotaped shooting someone on 5th Avenue, they would have to reconsider their support for him. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/28/opinion/trump-midterms-shoot-fifth-avenue.html">Maybe</a>.<o:p></o:p><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tu7t9aLoDhc" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-56502294031579367762018-11-29T10:57:00.002-05:002018-11-29T11:04:57.986-05:00"Treason Against The United States"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">Politico<a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/29/trump-rosenstein-belongs-in-jail-1026104"> </a><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/27/trump-pompeo-state-department-aide-1021516">reported</a>&nbsp;Tuesday<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Mary Kissel often took a dim view of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy. As a Wall Street Journal editorial writer, she tweeted about his “frightening ignorance,” criticized his approach on Syria and China, and said Vladimir Putin “scored a great propaganda victory” at the Helsinki summit in July.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>And Trump swatted back. After Kissel said in a March 2016 appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Trump has “no principles, he has no policies,” the president counterpunched on Twitter. “Major loser!” then-candidate Trump wrote, adding that Kissel had “no clue!”</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">So of course Kissel is now part of the Trump Administration as <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s new senior adviser for policy and strategic messaging....</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>“Trump would lose his mind if he knew about this,” a former administration official who has witnessed Trump react to past criticism told POLITICO.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">That's only because he loses his mind- or <i>seems </i>to- continually.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The day after this story appeared, Trump<a href="https://twitter.com/The_Trump_Train/status/1067687857400229888/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1067687857400229888&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnypost.com%2F2018%2F11%2F28%2Ftrump-slams-special-counsel-after-retweeting-image-of-rosenstein-behind-bars%2F"> retweeted aphotoshopped image</a> "which depicted targets of Trump attacks like former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Robert Mueller, Huma Abedin and James Comey overlaid with the text “Now that Russian collusion is a proven lie, when do the trials for treason begin?”</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="und"><a href="https://t.co/FWJRNzBUB3">pic.twitter.com/FWJRNzBUB3</a></div>— The Trump Train 🚂🇺🇸 (@The_Trump_Train) <a href="https://twitter.com/The_Trump_Train/status/1067687857400229888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 28, 2018</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">But the image included also Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Special Counsel Robert Mueller.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">It is <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2017/06/can-trump-fire-mueller/">arguable</a> whether the President of the USA can directly fire the Special Counsel, but inarguable that he can terminate him indirectly. Donald Trump's stooge, Acting Attorney General Matt Whittaker, would need little coaxing to ax the man conducting what his boss has<a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/29/trump-rosenstein-belongs-in-jail-1026104"> claimed</a> is a "witch hunt" that has "shattered so many innocent lives."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The President <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/24/why-it-matters-whether-rosenstein-is-fired-or-he-resigns.html">could fire</a> Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein, understandably, initially incurred Trump's displeasure when it was revealed that the DAG had raised the possibility of <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/408038-trump-declines-to-comment-on-if-hell-fire-rosenstein">invoking the 25th Amendment</a> to get rid of the President. Wisely, Rosenstein denied the report.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And now President Trump has accused Rosenstein and Mueller of treason.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">This is a serious charge, as those which are<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2381"> punishable by death</a> generally are.Yet, as of late Thursday morning, alleged traitors Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller are still in their critical, prestigious jobs. Reporters need to ask Sarah H. Sanders and the President himself why individuals <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleiii">giving aid and comfort to enemies of the United States of America</a>should remain in their positions, let alone not be charged with a felony.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">We know why Trump has not dismissed Chief of Staff John Kelly when "<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/418121-lewandowski-on-reported-physical-altercation-with-kelly-john-and-i">his potential ouster has been the subject of numerous reportsin recent months</a>." He would have to sack Kelly himself, and Trump is terrified of firing anyone. (Additionally, he may be concerned that Kelly would give him the <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/secret-service-called-over-white-house-fight-between-kelly-and-lewandowski-1182694">Lewandowski treatment</a>, which probably would result in a severely injured Donald Trump.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Nonetheless, now the President has accused two high-ranking officials of treason. Were the media to pursue it, the Press Secretary (and others) might write it off as "hyperbole," a "joke,"&nbsp; or merely passing on an entertaining tweet. Let them. Otherwise, Donald Trump again enjoys the privilege of denigrating the investigation into his high crimes and misdemeanors and riling up his base further without pushback.&nbsp; And failing to push back against a guy who sees himself always as a "winner" and practically everyone else as a "loser" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwGvMtwTkkY">below</a>, in August 2015) gives him a big, undeserved, win.<br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BwGvMtwTkkY" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-37477776191142099102018-11-28T17:48:00.001-05:002018-11-28T17:48:39.796-05:00As If To Confirm The Stereotype Of Government Employees<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">Meghan McCain, noting the perils of government shutdowns, sensibly stated Wednesday on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=210&amp;v=_HhJTsPuooo"><i>The View</i></a><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>I hate, maybe four degrees below terrorism, I hate government shutdowns because a) I think we're not electing these people to not work, number 1 on a very basic level; #2, it affects state parks, it affects military people getting aid.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br /></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Have you ever seen the picture of a little boy going to the Washington, D.C. zoo? He sees a panda and can't go in. There are ripple affects all the way around. Get in and do your job. If I'm having a bad day and disagree with you or something else happens, I come here, I'm still talking to you guys. Why do we have a different standard for the people in government?</i><br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_HhJTsPuooo" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />O.K., Ms. McCain- I"ll bite. (Some say I already do.) Why <i>do</i> we have a different standard for government? We don't for the rank-and-file government employee- but some employees, admittedly, have a considerable sense of entitlement.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And we have one of them at nearly the highest level of government, immediately below that of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Justice_of_the_United_States">Chief Justice of the United States</a>and of the President of the USA. In a puff piece, bordering on adoring, from Deadspin we learn that</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>over the weekend, Kavanaugh was indeed back at it during the 2018 Dick Brown Memorial Turkey Shootout, an annual basketball tournament for CYO squads held in Hyattsville, Md. Kavanaugh’s 12-and-under Blessed Sacrament squad, the defending champs, made it all the way back to the championship game this year.....</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>fans didn’t treat him any differently. (Tournament director Joe) Sego says “the bigger celebrity” at the event was Johnny Holliday, the locally legendary University of Maryland play-by-play announcer (who obsessives of the Beatles also known as the guy who in 1966 introduced the Fab Four at their final concert).</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">However, he <i>is</i> different, now an Associate Justice on the US Supreme Court, a job which appears less than taxing.&nbsp; Huffington Post's Alanna Vagianos<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dont-worry-brett-kavanaugh-is-still-coaching-girls-basketball_us_5bfea579e4b0d23c2138aace"> reminds</a> us</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>One of the more cringeworthy points of Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings came when the judge openly worried that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault accusation would not only cost him his Supreme Court seat but also his passion for coaching youth basketball. Ford publicly accused Kavanuagh in September of sexually assaulting her when the two were at a high school party in the 1980s.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>“I love coaching more than anything I’ve ever done in my whole life,” Kavanaugh said during the Senate hearings.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>“But thanks to what some of you on this side of the committee have unleashed, I may never be able to coach again,” he added defensively, referring to the Democratic senators on the judiciary committee. </i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">"I may never be able to coach again"&nbsp; said the man who has miraculously retained, or regained, his lust for coaching young girls. Kavanaugh may still "love coaching more than anything I've ever done in my whole life, and won't allow a lifetime, tenured seat on the highest court in the most powerful nation ever to distract him from a mission to coach young girls.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">After <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/10/2/17927606/brett-kavanaugh-perjury-lied-congress">lying</a> to the <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/09/kavanaugh-lied-senate-judiciary-committee.html">Senate Judiciary Committee and thecountry</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/27/mark-judges-book-validates-christine-fords-timeline-alleged-kavanaugh-assault/?utm_term=.a7cbab7496bf">Bart O'Kavanaugh</a> now has a fine salary, extraordinary prestige, and the most secure employment in the country, However as one tweeter <a href="https://twitter.com/j_wellemeyer/status/1067630196109574144">noted</a> (before acknowledging "Christina" should have been "Christine") while linking to an article about Kavanaugh's second job<o:p></o:p></div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">And Christina Blasey Ford has moved four times, continues to receive death threats, and still pays for private security. <a href="https://t.co/bnDfpdZWU2">https://t.co/bnDfpdZWU2</a></div>— James Wellemeyer (@j_wellemeyer) <a href="https://twitter.com/j_wellemeyer/status/1067630196109574144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 28, 2018</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-28811815136861067902018-11-27T17:28:00.000-05:002018-11-27T17:29:00.533-05:00Walking Humbly With His God<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url"><a href="https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/who-wrote-the-book-of-james/">James</a>, likely either the (half-) brother or the cousin of Jesus Christ, once wrote "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." Thus, on Thanksgiving President Trump<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-thanksgiving-teleconference-members-military/"> said</a> he was most thankful<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>For having a great family and for having made a tremendous difference in this country.&nbsp; I’ve made a tremendous difference in the country.&nbsp; This country is so much stronger now than it was when I took office, that you wouldn’t believe it.&nbsp; And — I mean, you see it, but so much stronger that people can’t even believe it.&nbsp; When I see foreign leaders, they say, “We cannot believe the difference in strength between the United States now and the United States two years ago.”&nbsp; Made a lot of progress.</b><br /><b><br /></b><b><br /></b></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RJgGyggV3mk" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The President's evangelical supporters probably know that King Solomon maintained "<a href="https://dailyverses.net/proverbs/11/2">when pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom</a>."&nbsp; They have read the words of Peter "<a href="https://dailyverses.net/1-peter/3/8">finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble</a>."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Nevertheless (perhaps not nevertheless, but <i>because</i>), white evangelical Protestants are arguably the most committed leg of Donald Trump's base.&nbsp; Conventional wisdom has it that their loyalty is afforded the President because of his opposition to abortion rights and placement on the Supreme Court of two very conservative, anti-choice judges.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But that assumption may be in error. <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/11/trumps-christian-apologists-are-unchristian.html">William Saletan</a> notes that in a September 2018 survey undertaken for the Public Research Religion Institute, white evangelical Protestants ("WEP's") were</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>asked whether recent police shootings of black men were “isolated incidents” or “part of a broader pattern of how police treat African Americans.” Seventy-one percent of WEPs said such killings were isolated incidents, compared with 63 percent of white Catholics and 59 percent of white mainline Protestants. In the BGC survey, 59 percent of non-evangelical whites agreed with the statement, “I am disturbed by comments President Trump has made about minorities.” But a plurality of white evangelicals disagreed with it.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Trump’s connection with WEPs on racial issues goes deeper than indifference. It’s based on shared identity. In the words of Christian essayist Michael Gerson, evangelicals have degenerated into an “anxious minority,” defining themselves as “an interest group in need of protection and preferences.” Stetzer, based on his analysis of survey data, finds that race and ethnicity, not faith, are driving much of this process. Many white evangelicals see their religion not as a universal calling but as a heritage that sets them apart. They fear people of other creeds, colors, and languages.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Additionally, a poll conducted for the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College discovered that</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>when white evangelicals were asked to name all the factors that influenced their votes in 2016, fewer than half mentioned abortion or the Supreme Court. Their top issues were the economy, health care, national security, and immigration. The biggest gap between pro-Trump evangelicals and other evangelicals, when they were pressed to name the most important voting issue, was on immigration. That issue was more important to Trump supporters in the BGC survey, and it’s a big winner for Trump among WEPs in other polls. “White evangelicals overwhelmingly back more hardline positions on immigration, with three-fourths wanting a reduction in legal immigration,” BGC director) Stetzer reports.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Consequently, white evangelical Protestants may back Trump because many are conservative across-the-board. Alternatively, it is conceivable that once a politically conservative evangelical believes that a politician is strongly anti-abortion rights and wants to reshape the Court accordingly, he or she accepts blindly the politician's views on other issues.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Consequently, these individuals may willingly accept other traits, such as an egotism and narcissism as wide as the Garden of Eden, which are antithetical to biblical Christianity.&nbsp; With Donald Trump's character fully and continually on display the past several years, white evangelical Protestants know what he is- and may view it less as a bug than as a favorable characteristic. They have forgotten- or chosen to disregard-&nbsp; that <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+16%3A18&amp;version=ESV">pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span></div></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-75634804053480770872018-11-26T13:25:00.001-05:002018-11-26T13:26:39.745-05:00I'm Not A Surgeon But I'll Repair Your Heart Valve<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">It's fair, and good, to invite on to the Sunday morning news shows individuals from all ends of the political spectrum. However, the journalists- or television personalities- moderating a discussion must have both a working knowledge of the topic they will be discussing a willingness to challenge blatant falsehoods.<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Instead, when <i><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-november-25-2018-n939836">Meet the Press</a></i> host Chuck Todd asked (at 39:07 of the first&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlhD2kSQagI">video</a>&nbsp;below) about the Fourth National Climate Assessment, the work of 300 scientists and 13 federal agencies which the Trump Administration and its allies are <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/11/the-trump-administration-is-doing-its-best-to-undermine-dire-climate-report/">undermining</a>, he ignored obvious disinformation. Doris Keans Goodwin remarked, blandly though constructively, "if you can't look past yourself and the greater good and not the future, it's not leadership." Only slightly more controversially, Elise Jordan noted that the California fires "would, you hope, start to wake up Republican politicians."&nbsp; &nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">However Danielle Pletka of the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Enterprise_Institute">AmericanEnterprise Institute</a>, a right-wing think tank funded <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/donors-trust-donor-capital-fund-dark-money-koch-bradley-devos/">primarily by dark money</a>, claimed</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>The problem for many is that they perceive this as an agenda that is much more about corporate and much more about law and much more about the kind of governance that America has and much less about climate. So from the standpoint of those who have doubts about this, and I don't think we can have any doubts that there is climate change, whether it's anthropogenic, I don't know, I'm not a scientist. I look at this as a citizen and I see it so I understand it. On the other hand, we need to also recognize that we just had two of the coldest years, the biggest drop in global temperatures that we've had since the 1980s, the biggest in the last 100 years. We don't talk about that because it's not part of the agenda....</b><br /><b><br /></b><b><br /></b></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HlhD2kSQagI" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />We don't talk about it because it's not true.&nbsp; Pletka's claim that "we just had two of the coldest years... since the 1980s" is a Trump-sized lie. In January NASA <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2671/long-term-warming-trend-continued-in-2017-nasa-noaa/">reported</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Earth’s global surface temperatures in 2017 ranked as the second warmest since 1880, according to an analysis by NASA.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Continuing the planet's long-term warming trend, globally averaged temperatures in 2017 were 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.90 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 1951 to 1980 mean, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. That is second only to global temperatures in 2016.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>In a separate, independent analysis, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) concluded that 2017 was the third-warmest year in their record. The minor difference in rankings is due to the different methods used by the two agencies to analyze global temperatures, although over the long-term the agencies’ records remain in strong agreement. Both analyses show that the five warmest years on record all have taken place since 2010.</i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Theoretically, a reversal may be taking place in 2018. Theoretically, but not actually, because as earlier this month NOAA<a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/global-climate-201810"> found</a><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>October 2018 also marks the 42nd consecutive October and the 406th consecutive month with temperatures, at least nominally, above the 20th century average....<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br /></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>The year-to-date temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.39 degrees above the 20th century average of 57.4 degrees Fahrenheit- the fourth highest for January-October in the 139-year record. The years 2014-2018 comprise the five warmest January-October periods on record, with 2016 the warmest such period at 1.76 degrees Fahrenheit above average.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Todd undoubtedly knew that Pletka was pulling thing(s) out of her posterior. The problem could be mitigated by more transparency than simply introducing such people as "Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute." Admittedly, that could prove awkward, unwieldy, or vulnerable to inaccuracy or bias.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In the short term, in the matter of climate change, Dan Rather has the <a href="https://twitter.com/DanRather/status/1066887920538157056">best recommendation</a>:</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">When someone starts an argument with "I'm not a scientist, but..." maybe we should stop listening to them weighing in on science. And maybe news shows should stop asking these pundits to talk about something they’re not qualified to talk about.</div>— Dan Rather (@DanRather) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanRather/status/1066887920538157056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 26, 2018</a></blockquote><br /><br /><br /><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-TUCAIJYy3k" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-13508133581460009832018-11-24T20:23:00.000-05:002018-11-24T20:23:11.694-05:00The Apology That Never Was<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">It was an instant classic.<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Admittedly, that's akin to "controlling their own destiny," a common sports remark. If one could control her own destiny, it wouldn't be destiny. And if it's instant, it's not a classic.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Still, Cindy Hyde-Smith pulled off a reasonable facsimile. Headline writers for <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/20/mississippi-debate-hyde-smith-espy-1009548">Politico</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/11/20/cindy-hyde-smith-apologizes-hanging-comment-mississippi-senator/2075212002/">USA Today</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-debate/mississippi-republican-senator-apologizes-for-hanging-comment-idUSKCN1NQ06P">Reuters</a>, <a href="http://time.com/5461133/cindy-hyde-smith-public-hanging-lynching/">TIME</a>, and<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/live/video/20181122001559-mississippi-senator-cindy-hyde-smith-apologizes-for-racial-remark-ahead-of-special-election/"> CBS News</a>- which thought it an actual apology- were fooled, though<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/video/hyde-smith-defends-public-hanging-comment-in-mississippi-senate-debate-1376441923880?v=raila&amp;"> NBC News </a>was not.&nbsp; The incumbent Mississippi senator, locked in a runoff campaign against Democrat Mike Espy, was viewed on Twitter <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/11/21/669746158/racial-controversy-stirs-mississippi-senate-runoff">gushing</a> of a cattle rancher and supporter "if he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be in the front row."&nbsp; She <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l5wIbGSi24">was asked</a> at a debate</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Senator Hyde-Smith, the video in which you referenced a public hanging has received criticism and attention. You have released a statement in which you say that any attempt to turn it into a negative connotation is ridiculous. What is the positive connotation and are you willing to explain or apologize tonight?</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In what had all the elements of the quintessential non-apology, the incumbent responded</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>For anyone that was offended by my comments</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">This is a standard line in the fake apology with three dodges: "For anyone" is a refusal to acknowledge the specific individual(s) or group(s) she has insulted.&nbsp; "By my comments" is avoiding acknowledging there was something<i> specific</i> that was inappropriate. (Being human, everyone has made appalling, unspecified, "comments" at one time.)&nbsp; "Offended" is (though unrecognized) a de facto attack upon the subject of the remarks. It is not enough for a remark not to be "offensive." If it is insulting, that's bad enough.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>There was no ill will, no intent, whatsoever in my statement.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">An intent to insult is not a prerequisite for offending or insulting.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>And you know in 20 years of service of being your state senator, your Commissioner of Agriculture, and your US Senator, I have worked with all Mississippians. It did not matter their skin color type, their age, or their income.&nbsp; That's my record. There has never been anything, not one thing, in my background to ever indicate I had ill will toward anyone.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Well, not quite. In a piece featuring the Senator's hometown, Will Bunch <a href="http://www2.philly.com/philly/columnists/will_bunch/cindy-hyde-smith-mississippi-senate-race-mike-espy-lamar-smith-1955-murder-20181118.html#loaded">slams</a> "one of Hyde-Smith's first acts during her first term in the Mississippi Legislature in 2002, which was to unsuccessfully push a bill to rename Highway 51 running through Brookhaven as Jefferson Davis Highway, in honor of the slave-owning president of the Confederacy who had no specific tie to Brookhaven."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>I've never been hurtful to anyone. I've always tried to be kind to everyone.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Never</i> hurtful and <i>always </i>attempting to be kind, Cindy Hyde-Smith is unlike anyone who has ever lived, save for some guy who himself was hung two centuries-plus ago.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>I also recognize that this comment was twisted and it was turned into a weapon to be used against me, a political weapon used for nothing but personal and political gain by my opponent.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">As Espy noted, those "twisted" comments came directly out of her mouth.&nbsp; The real sin, Hyde-Smith alleges, was not her comment but repetition of the comment as "a political weapon." Additionally, the "recognize" was a nice touch, suggesting that this is less an opinion than understanding what her wise constituents know.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>That's the kind of politics Mississippians are sick and tired of.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">If Mississippians are "sick and tired" (a phrase we voters are sick and tired of hearing from political candidates) of such racialized politics as Bunch describes, Phil Ochs may still be right about them. Hopefully not.<br /><br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_l5wIbGSi24" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-74688037617777456362018-11-23T17:57:00.000-05:002018-11-23T17:57:31.396-05:00Questionable Judgement, Terrible Timing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">What's striking- or should be- is the<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/22/hillary-clinton-europe-must-curb-immigration-stop-populists-trump-brexit"> timing</a>&nbsp;as<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Europe must get a handle on immigration to combat a growing threat from rightwing populists, Hillary Clinton has said, calling on the continent’s leaders to send out a stronger signal showing they are “not going to be able to continue to provide refuge and support”.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>In an interview with the Guardian, the former Democratic presidential candidate praised the generosity shown by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, but suggested immigration was inflaming voters and contributed to the election of Donald Trump and Britain’s vote to leave the EU.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>“I think Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what lit the flame,” Clinton said, speaking as part of a series of interviews with senior centrist political figures about the rise of populists, particularly on the right, in Europe and the Americas.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>“I admire the very generous and compassionate approaches that were taken particularly by leaders like Angela Merkel, but I think it is fair to say Europe has done its part, and must send a very clear message – ‘we are not going to be able to continue provide refuge and support’ – because if we don’t deal with the migration issue it will continue to roil the body politic.”<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Clinton’s remarks are likely to prove controversial across Europe....</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p>&nbsp;In other risky predictions, the <a href="https://www.canalstreetchronicles.com/2018/11/22/18108076/new-orleans-saints-falcons-thanksgiving-final-score-win-31-17-drew-brees-matt-ryan-nfl-2018">New Orleans Saints</a> will get into the NFL playoffs this year.</o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">By sheer&nbsp; and complete coincidence, an<a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/22/religious-right-criminal-justice-reform-1009543"> article</a> appeared yesterday in Politico addressing a seemingly unrelated- yet actually related- issue. Noting the increasing support of evangelical Christians (I'm from<a href="https://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/history/slogan.asp"> Missouri</a> on this) for criminal justice reform, Politico notes that the idea of reducing prison populations "gained prominence on the left, too. In 2015, former President Bill Clinton — whose policies led to the mass incarceration of drug offenders — called for a bipartisan fix to sentencing rules that swelled prison populations."<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violent_Crime_Control_and_Law_Enforcement_Act"><br /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violent_Crime_Control_and_Law_Enforcement_Act">It has for years now been assumed wisdom on the left thatthe Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 </a>was a disaster. That is a gross oversimplification because the primary problem with the legislation was its timing.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Coming at the tail end of public apprehension and revulsion with rising crime, especially of the violent type, the legislation was enacted in the tenth- and final- year of rising crime rates. The following year, as if by magic, crime <a href="http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm">began to decrease</a>.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">With a lag time to be expected, there is little chance that more than a small portion of that decline can be attributed to the legislation.&nbsp; There are many reasons for the decline the past quarter century, probably only two of them (#1 and #2<a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/2/13/8032231/crime-drop">&nbsp;here</a>) directly aided by the law.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Enacted only after congressional and presidential resistance to punitive action could not withstand public pressure, the measure came about only after most of the intended benefit could be realized.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And so Hillary Clinton, wife of the president who signed an ill-timed crime-reduction bill, has issued a (arguably) prudent warning to European leaders- but at a curious moment in history given that, as The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/22/world/europe/hillary-clinton-migration-populism-europe.html?smtyp=cur&amp;smid=tw-nytimes">explains</a>, in recent years</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>... centrist leaders have worked to make the continent less hospitable to unauthorized migrants; the number of new arrivals there has dropped to a fraction of what it was.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>For instance, Ms. Merkel, the center-right German leader, and Frans Timmermanns, the center-left former Dutch foreign minister, led efforts to forge a counter-migration pact with Turkey in March 2016, promising the country billions of euros in aid for its help in stemming the migrant flow from Syria. Italy reached a similar deal with Libya. The deal was criticized by liberals, leftists and rights activists — but afterward, unauthorized migration to Europe plummeted by 90 percent.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>“We must get the facts straight,” said Gerald Knaus, the architect of the controversial deal with Turkey. “Today in 2018, few irregular migrants reach the European Union.”</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Knauss added "today in 2018, few irregular migrants reach the European Union," thus "just getting tough without any strategy does the work of the far right." <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/27/world/europe/europe-migrant-crisis-change.html">As of four months ago</a>, "the actual number of arriving migrants is back to its pre-2015 level, even as the politics of migration continue to shake the continent."<br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">That probably applies also to the United States of America.&nbsp; The authoritarian who openly admires totalitarian leaders worldwide has applauded Brexit; questioned Article V of the NATO treaty; pulled the USA out of the Paris global climate change treaty and the Iran nuclear deal to which Europe is committed; urged France to abandon the European Union; <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/13/politics/trump-sun-uk-interview-intl/index.html">condemned the mayor of&nbsp; London</a> after a terrorist attack upon his city; threatened tariffs against European allies; cozied up to NATO's enemy, Russia; and tried to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/11/politics/donald-trump-g7-chaos/index.html">undermine June's G7 summit</a> in Quebec.&nbsp;At some point, a pattern emerges.&nbsp;&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Crime legislation supported by Hillary Clinton and enacted by her husband may (or may not) have proven very wise if adopted the previous decade. Similarly, when Europe faced a <i>crisis</i> a few years ago brought on by oppressive regimes, war, and climate change, Mrs. Clinton's remarks criticizing the continent for its policy on refugee resettlement may have made a little sense.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Since then, the problem has been somewhat- however imperfectly- resolved.&nbsp;&nbsp; The timing is <i>especially</i> inauspicious while the President of the USA exploits traditional American distrust of Europe in order to destroy the political, economic, and strategic ties among its member nations, and with the USA.<o:p></o:p><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WqSo1C9vUgM" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-48521292219400802182018-11-22T10:44:00.000-05:002018-11-22T10:44:02.925-05:00Less (Or More) Than It Appears<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">Charlie Sykes is energized, tweeting "<a href="https://twitter.com/SykesCharlie/status/1065348940437090306">it's on</a>" following a tiff between President Trump and Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday. After an unfavorable court ruling on asylum applications, Trump <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/rare-rebuke-chief-justice-roberts-slams-trump-comment-about-obama-n939016">startedit</a> just before boarding Air Force One by stating<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>The 9th Circuit — we’re going to have to look at that.&nbsp; Because every case, no matter where it is, they file it — practically, I mean practically — for all intents and purposes — they file it in what’s called the 9th Circuit.&nbsp; This was an Obama judge.&nbsp; And I’ll tell you what, it’s not going to happen like this anymore.</b><br /><b><br /></b><b><br /></b></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zB25CGlCyow" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />Chief Justice John Roberts responded</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>Then Trump countered with a pair of tweets:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have “Obama judges,” and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country. It would be great if the 9th Circuit was indeed an “independent judiciary,” but if it is why......</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>.....are so many opposing view (on Border and Safety) cases filed there, and why are a vast number of those cases overturned. Please study the numbers, they are shocking. We need protection and security - these rulings are making our country unsafe! Very dangerous and unwise!</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">An hour later, Trump added a third tweet criticizing the 9th Circuit.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Obviously, Trump&nbsp; misrepresents- probably intentionally- the role of the Judiciary. Of course, judges have a different perspective than the cops. The latter group is charged with law enforcement, the former group with the rule of law. However, Trump understands that many, probably most, people don't fully grasp the concept of <i>role</i>.&nbsp; Motivated by values, they take sides; in this case, anti-immigrant or pro-diversity, and if they are with Trump on immigration, they are with the border patrol and against the courts.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">"<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/909749-surely-comrades-you-do-not-want-jones-back-once-again">Surely, comrades, you don't want Jones back?</a>" Napoleon rhetorically asks the animals in George Orwell's Animal Farm.&nbsp; The question itself reinforces the myth of the benevolence and altruism of the farm's new owners, as if they are much better than farmer Jones. If Trump implies that judges are Democratic stooges, voters may not notice that he has packed the courts with Republicans.&nbsp;&nbsp; In August, Rolling Stone's Andy Kroll <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trumps-judicial-takeover-711200/">explained</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>As of this writing, Trump has put 26 new judges onto the appellate courts, more than any other chief executive at this point in the presidency. He has also nominated over 100 district-court judges and gotten 26 of those picks confirmed. These judges are overwhelmingly young, ideological and now set to serve lifetime appointments. And then, of course, there’s Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s first pick for the Supreme Court, and Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the president’s second Supreme Court nominee, who stands a strong chance of confirmation. “Whatever anyone wants to say about President Trump, he was very explicit about which judges he wanted, and he’s gone about appointing them,” says Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. “He made a promise and they’re keeping it.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">President Trump would like to undermine the Judiciary, but that would be more consequential if and when he is re-elected and thus able to put the country under his complete control. In the short term- his more pressing concern- he wants to strengthen support for his draconian anti-immigrant, anti-refugee policies. Additionally, he is trying to divert attention, to impede recognition that the courts are increasingly Republican, conservative, and crafted in his image. And there is no one better at diversion than Donald Trump.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Chief Justice Roberts, by contrast, is concerned only with preserving the integrity of the Court- especially his own, which (ironically) will be handing down decisions which in most cases will be favorable to the right and Donald Trump. Notwithstanding his protestation, he is aware that virtually every judge <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/11/chief-justice-roberts-thanksgiving-rebuke-trump-attack-judiciary-9th-circuit-asylum.html">brings his or her opinions, values, or perspectives</a> to the table. Not surprisingly, he is allowing the leader of his party, the President, to have the last word.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Consequently, it is not "on," notwithstanding Charlie Sykes' excitement.&nbsp; Judges and border patrol agents are not antagonists, but rather address different aspects of&nbsp; the same issue. Chief Justice Roberts may successfully defend the integrity of the court system he leads but Donald Trump is playing a different game with different rules.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; HAPPY THANKSGIVING</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-10525494790273455872018-11-21T11:21:00.000-05:002018-11-21T13:40:05.398-05:00The Family Interest<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">Riyadh (probably) doesn't own President Trump- but it has taken a lease out on him. In March The Intercept <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/03/21/jared-kushner-saudi-crown-prince-mohammed-bin-salman/">reported</a><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>In late October, Jared Kushner made an unannounced trip to Riyadh, catching some intelligence officials off guard. “The two princes are said to have stayed up until nearly 4 a.m. several nights, swapping stories and planning strategy,” the Washington Post’s David Ignatius reported at the time.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>What exactly Kushner and the Saudi royal talked about in Riyadh may be known only to them, but after the meeting, Crown Prince Mohammed told confidants that Kushner had discussed the names of Saudis disloyal to the crown prince, according to three sources who have been in contact with members of the Saudi and Emirati royal families since the crackdown. Kushner, through his attorney’s spokesperson, denies having done so....<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br /></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>One of the people MBS told about the discussion with Kushner was UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, according to a source who talks frequently to confidants of the Saudi and Emirati rulers. MBS bragged to the Emirati crown prince and others that Kushner was “in his pocket,” the source told The Intercept.</i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The spokesperson for Kushner attorney Abby Lowell denied the charge, but that was seven months before USA intelligence determined with "high probability" that Mohammed bin Salman, the son of Saudi King Salman, knew that his subjects had murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi. That was in turn a few weeks before the President would<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-defends-saudia-arabias-denial-about-the-planning-of-khashoggis-death/2018/11/20/b64d2cc6-eceb-11e8-9236-bb94154151d2_story.html?utm_term=.c909599ad960"> remark</a> "maybe he did, maybe he didn't."<o:p></o:p><br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u4kYaSonDsg" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />Last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince bin Salman, the de facto leader of the Kingdom. "A senior Saudi source," according to London-based online news outlet <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_Eye">Middle East Eye</a>, </i><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudis-using-pompeos-plan-shield-leadership-khashoggi-fallout-says-source-1684431379">maintains</a> Pompeo gave the pair<i>&nbsp;</i>a plan which includes "an option to pin the Saudi journalist’s murder on an innocent member of the ruling al-Saud family in order to insulate those at the very top." Although the person has not been selected yet, "Saudi leaders are reserving the use of that plan in case the pressure on bin Salman, also known as MBS, becomes too much."<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Amid growing criticism and pressure to acknowledge the obvious, President Trump on Tuesday issued a<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-president-donald-j-trump-standing-saudi-arabia/"> statement </a>defending the Saudi government. An assistant professor at the Ottawa University Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, Thomas Juneau, has thoroughly<a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/pile-lies-bs-and-nonsense-canadian-professor-debunks-trumps-statement-721103980"> refuted</a> Trump's claims that: Iran is responsible for a bloody proxy war in Yemen; Assad has killed millions of his own citizens; Saudi Arabia would gladly withdraw from Yemen if the Iranians would agree to leave; Saudi Arabia has agreed to spend and invest $450 billion in the US; $110 billion will be spent on the purchase of military equipment from US companies; if we foolishly cancel these contracts, Russia and China would be the enormous beneficiaries; King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Otherwise, what Trump stated was largely accurate. (Otherwise, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?) President Trump has chosen Saudi national interest over USA national interest because Riyadh's national interest and the Trump family interest<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/at-president-trumps-hotel-in-new-york-revenue-went-up-this-spring--thanks-to-a-visit-from-big-spending-saudis/2018/08/03/58755392-9112-11e8-bcd5-9d911c784c38_story.html?utm_term=.1b9b888052bc"> happily coincide</a>. The executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which is involved in two lawsuits charging the President with violation of the Constitution's <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/emoluments_clause">Emoluments Clause</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/10/18/president-trump-has-massive-conflict-interest-saudi-arabia/?noredirect=on&amp;utm_term=.eef39492da5a">notes</a> Trump<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>and his businesses have continued to benefit substantially from Saudi customers, including the government of Saudi Arabia. Press reports have indicated that the kingdom of Saudi Arabia has recently paid for rooms and meals at the Trump hotels in Washington and Chicago. In 2017, Saudi lobbyists spent $270,000 to reserve rooms at Trump’s hotel in Washington. The kingdom itself paid $4.5 million in 2001 to purchase a floor of Trump World Tower and continues to pay tens of thousands in annual common charges to Trump businesses for that property (the total of which could be up to $5.7 million since 2001, according to one estimate). In the past year, as bookings fell overall, Trump’s hotels in New York and Chicago reported a significant uptick in bookings from Saudi Arabia. And a major factor in a recent increase in revenue for the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Manhattan was that Saudis accompanying the crown prince during a recent visit stayed there, as The Washington Post has reported.<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Trump said at a campaign rally in 2015 about Saudi Arabia: “I get along great with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.”<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>What’s notable about that statement is not just the president’s description of his significant business ties to Saudi Arabia but his stark admissio</b>n<b> that he is inclined to look favorably on those who give him business.</b><o:p></o:p><br /><b><br /></b><b><br /></b></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9jWOM7mVKew" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />The<a href="https://observer.com/2018/04/donald-trump-gangster-president/"> head of an organized crime cartel</a>, Donald Trump' is the <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2018/11/trump-proves-hes-little-mob-boss-gone-mad-using-presidency-money-revenge/?utm_source=push_notifications">master of the shakedown</a>. Thus the rationalization of his defense of Saudi Arabia was riddled with inaccuracies, which would have been more honest and simple if he had merely stated "they bought me off. So what are you going to do about it?"<o:p></o:p><br /><br /><br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; HAPPY THANKSGIVING</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span></div></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29575463.post-35322759782118708262018-11-20T12:49:00.001-05:002018-11-20T21:18:10.318-05:00Washington And Ohio<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <br /><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" expr:addthis:title="data:post.title" expr:addthis:url="data:post.url">Linking to a <a href="https://www.axios.com/donald-trump-matt-whitaker-attorney-general-98b68285-12fa-4407-a807-8e03fe2b9b8c.html?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=twsocialshare&amp;utm_campaign=organic">piece</a> by Jonathan Swan of Axios, Jim Vandehei of Axios <a href="https://twitter.com/JimVandeHei/status/1064876012809478144">tweets</a> "A source familiar with Trump's thinking said the president has privately used the word 'courage.' "Clearly what he likes about him is he's holding his ground, not running for the tall grass, the source said." In response, Charlie Pierce <a href="https://twitter.com/CharlesPPierce/status/1064895908272312321">recognizes</a> "the essential worthlessness of an entire news operation in a single tweet."<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Courage hardly seems to be the quality Trump most treasures in his selection of an Assistant Attorney General, who previously had concluded the Special Counsel's probe is a "witch hunt." It's highly unlikely when according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-discusses-possible-trump-visit-to-troops-in-iraq-or-afghanistan/2018/11/19/9f6724d8-ec2a-11e8-96d4-0d23f2aaad09_story.html?utm_term=.624273c69b3c">The Washington Post</a><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Trump has spoken privately about his fears over risks to his own life, according to a former senior White House official, who has discussed the issue with the president and spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about Trump’s concerns.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />&nbsp;“He’s never been interested in going,” the official said of Trump visiting troops in a combat zone, citing conversations with the president. “He’s afraid of those situations. He’s afraid people want to kill him.”<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />The President reportedly also doesn't want to associate himself with wars he views as failures.. However, given that he is a weak leader who is afraid of nothing more than he is of appearing weak, it has the ring of truth.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />Courage never has been Trump's strong point, and it's a character flaw that seems to run strongly throughout his adopted party.&nbsp; Florida senator<a href="https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1064508627346735106"> MarcoRubio</a> tweets<o:p></o:p></div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">I don’t know if Adm. William McRaven shares my political views or not.<br /><br />But I do know that few Americans have sacrificed or risked more than he has to protect America &amp; the freedoms we enjoy. <br /><br />His military career exemplified honor &amp; excellence.<br /><br />I am grateful for his service.</div>— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) <a href="https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1064508627346735106?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2018</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> <br /><div class="MsoNormal">Max Boot <a href="https://twitter.com/MaxBoot/status/1064515827897171968">responds</a> "No political risk for supporting Adm McRaven as long as you don’t call out Trump by name for attacking another American hero." Rubio wasn't alone. Unsurprisingly, the Speaker of the House omits the name "Trump" in the <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/417548-paul-ryan-defends-navy-admiral-who-led-osama-bin-laden">statement</a> "Speaker Ryan has traveled to Afghanistan multiple times, most recently in October, and has seen our military’s service and dedication firsthand. As the holidays approach, we are especially grateful for our troops’ sacrifice."<br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VeiwoGTjtMQ" width="520"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />And then there is Ohio, in which media darling John Kasich, the United States Supreme Court be damned, in 2016 signed into law a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks. Now the GOP-controlled legislature, in its unrelenting effort to force birth upon unwilling participants, is hard at work trying to pass legislation further to abridge a woman's reproductive freedom.&nbsp; The legislation would ban all abortions performed at any time unless, the <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pro-life-bill-allows-possibility-of-death-penalty-for-abortion-providers-and-pregnant-people-2394e21ed4f9/">Center for American Progress </a>notes, they are "based on a surgical, chemical, or medical procedure to treat a disease”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">CAP understandably is incensed because if the bill is enacted into law, the woman as well as the medical practitioner could be charged with a criminal offense up to and including murder.&nbsp; Nonetheless, CAP notes<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The bill includes a provision that says the pregnant person can avoid these consequences in criminal or civil court if they are willing to be part of a hearing, provide information to investigators, or make a report. But this does not apply to health care providers performing abortions.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Of course she can, and it doesn't. If the (formerly) pregnant individual were held as culpable as the practitioner for aborting a fetus (defined as an "unborn person") what the legislature classifies as murder, it would risk alienating the 50-55% of the voting public which is female, or at least the not-insignificant portion which is of child-bearing age. Their boyfriends or husbands might also be perturbed.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">It is aimed by its proponents to force the Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade, as is the slightly less draconian<a href="https://www.citybeat.com/news/blog/21032956/think-ohios-heartbeat-bill-is-strict-this-legislation-could-bring-murder-charges-for-abortions"> HB 258</a>.&nbsp; (Although he has remained agnostic on 565, incoming governor Mike DeWine has pledged to sign 258.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Restriction of abortion rights is fertile ground for cowardice. Trump himself once<a href="http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2015/06/28/donald-trump-on-cnns-state-of-the-union-im-in-it-to-win-it-i-will-make-our-country-great-again/"> told</a> CNN’s Jake Tapper “I am pro-choice,” then on follow-up “I’m pro-life. I’m sorry.” He’s less forthright than when he admitted to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews that a prohibition on abortion should require<a href="https://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/20-years-of-trump-trump-calls-for-some-form-of-punishment-on-abortion-1243450947756?v=raila&amp;"> punishment </a>for the woman as well as the practitioner. Still, the lack of courage puts him in the same league as GOP legislators in Columbus and in Washington, D.C., whatever Axios wants us to believe.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=gregoryrichter">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator">|</span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gregoryrichter" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- AddThis Button END --></div>main street liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11309905603024705085noreply@blogger.com0